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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
BOARD OF REGENTS OF 


THE SMITHSONIAN 
INSTITUTION 


SHOWING THE 
OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND 


CONDITION OR THE INSTIDUTION 
FOR | THE. YEAR. ENDED. TONE» 30 


bO+3 


SeE-INC Re 


(Publication 3741) 


UNITED STATES 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
WASHINGTON : 1944 


For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 
Price $2.00 (cloth cover) 


De Ons SEE AC IN ee eA Te 


SMITHSONIAN InstITuTION, 
Washington, December 28, 1943. 
To the Congress of the United States: 

In accordance with section 5593 of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States, I have the honor, in behalf of the Board of Regents, 
to submit to Congress the annual report of the operations, expendi- 
tures, and conditions of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 
ended June 30, 1948. I have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. G. Angor, Secretary. 


II 


CONTENTS 


LAS OLE Om BACHE IS ta inn aan Ae os pd RN oh Ee re RA 
she omIuhsOnian IMewariiMes ssn 2 ee ee Ee gems Fas ea 
Summary of the year’s activities of the branches of the Institution_____-__ 
“GPa 2s SPEYO] oy WASW a a Sy 0 Rc gat ph i on Ne Rt fo SEN, 
SRNGREGAT Cami puemem tet. = 2 lee Dea ees oS Vi ee a 
REAR PRS DS SS eg Ba 2 a Fa eh a 1 eee Sp ee SY eee ey 
SESUT ED UCU TOES ee eee tee pa ee ed ee ae A es i 
GLa aiey pep ene ne eH se eye Se aCe ANS ape RA eS re Sa ea ee 
Appendix 1. Report on the United States National Museum____-__--_---- 
2. Report on the National Gallery of Art_......___-.-----.-- 

3. Report on the National Collection of Fine Arts__---_------ 

4 Report on the; Preer ‘Gallery of Art-2 2225 2202 2 ob sl. ek 

5. Report on the Bureau of American Ethnology_--_---------- 

6. Report on the International Exchange Service.____--_----- 

7. meport,onithe National.Zoologieal Park 29-2023 2b20 2 Lue 

8. Report on the Astrophysical Observatory, including the Divi- 

sion of Astrophysical Research and the Division of Radia- 

LIGA ONC ANISTVIN = Ss Doe ye OU oe ee a aa Ae es 
SeReportvonnchedibranyat ce a) sei Bate ee le ea 

1Oe enor onspuplcations. J 2.522225" oleh ee oes 

Report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents___---------- 


GENERAL APPENDIX 


Solar radiation as a power source, by C. G. Abbot___-__---------------- 
Some biological effects of solar radiation, by Brian O’Brien___---_------ 
The sea as a storehouse, by E. F. Armstrong, D. Sc., F. R. S_----------- 
Progress in new synthetic textile fibers, by Herbert R. Mauersberger- -_-- 
Petroleum) geology, by William, BD. beroy 9622 so eS De 
The 1942 eruption of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, by Gordon A. Macdonald _-_--_- 
New metals and new methods, by C. H. Desch, F. R. S__-------------- 
Ocesnourapbys by, leary (©: Svetson. «|. -s0 0k vo a 
The ocean current called ‘‘The Child,” by Eliot G. Mears__--_-_-------- 
Maps, strategy, and world politics, by Richard Edes Harrison and Robert 

LE VLEET 2 AN 5S) MR SB rs oa en ME g my > OE ALAS Ras By Reg lal CaN EE SP 
The natural-history background of camouflage, by Herbert Friedmann _-- 
Dangerous weptiles, by Doris Mi. Cochran 502. ieee oe el ies 
The plants of China and their usefulness to man, by Egbert H. Walker--- 
PIMGUTAl SEU ODED, ON Oni WOOK Sos 2. ee ee een SS FS ee 
Lessons from the Old World to the Americas in land use, by Walter Clay 

RAW RVC EN Ia UE aresenepe eset pease ne Sh ete aly Rene LT eh oN EA ke las 


99 
109 
135 
151 
161 
199 
213 
219 
245 


253 
259 
275 
325 
363 


413 


IV CONTENTS 


Page 

Areal and temporal aspects of aboriginal South American culture, by John 
M Cooper: oa 2226 Se eS poe 2h ee Se eee a re 429 

Origin of the Far Eastern civilizations: A brief handbook, by Carl Whiting 
Bishop. 2 o2-Leisutut 2oeee Pee ee epee ee ee ee oe 463 
Contours of culture in Indonesia, by Raymond Kennedy .__________-__- 513 
The Arab village community of the Middle East, by Afif I. Tannous_-_-__- 523 
Chemotherapeutic agents from microbes, by Robert L. Weintraub-_--_-_- 545 

Sulfonamides in the treatment of war wounds and burns, by Charles L. 
iy, uel tea WR JMR A SrA ANAT CR PRN YS FR pe 569 
The yellow fever situation in the Americas, by Wilbur A. Sawyer_-_-_--_--- 575 


Some food problems in wartime, by George R. Cowgill_....--_--_-----_- 591 


LIST OF PLATES 


Secretary’s Report: 

JETER ei ay POL OR ea EY SPU Msn te re yeaa el Se le Speed a cae 
Solar radiation as a power source (Abbot): 

J 2) KEW SYS) OE Mk i a Ne gS 2 ng DRE ALE PR pe ee 


The sea as a storehouse (Armstrong): 

TAGES pilin ee ete ere a sete cigs Lye Me ee ne eee ep hare eet BU ak Rh Do 
Eruption of Mauna Loa (Macdonald): 

PERSE DERE Saas cae oA oll hy aaah ESI Oy 2 A Rapes a a ee eager 2 
Ocean current called ‘“The Child’”’ (Mears): 

EERE GE ict eae ers ae Se oe ee ee ee LEE ie ee 
Maps (Harrison and Strausz-Hupé): 

DAVEY A xSSicd fa BO a RE Al aye Bg ee SN pe Ray ral EE a ek = pt TA i 
Camouflage (Friedmann): 

EH Ey yess y a aa Ghee a Te Ne a a ak AL aI Are pa aN 2 oe OR 
Dangerous reptiles (Cochran): 


Plants of China (Walker): 

PTGS il m2 errr ee me aye IS Mey ape dee er yt Ne Sips Sel 
Natural rubber (Cook): 

PIS UES Blo eee etre Vn At AYN annals ore ORE aN PERE de ais 
Land use (Lowdermilk) : 

TERT Wers} Ga TE A ae Ee Me ge lf AU cI | a i ee en a a 
Aboriginal South American culture (Cooper): 

ENE a erep ie Mee ta AN aa A ON Ee Le ai Ce een en 
Far Eastern civilizations (Bishop): 

TRA cere H nd Gat OS SS Eg NT UR SG MA gD San Cg ee 
Indonesia (Kennedy): 

YEOH ey )ap CU fata a cE 1 a eae A PN 
Arab village community (Tannous): 

PTS Ges i — Aare rete a ae ANS Lee Dap LM WL AAU ete pe MRO Na) BE ae te Uh ea 
Chemotherapeutic agents (Weintraub) : 

PU ea ees oy 8 es I Pe en SD RY Ck I a i 


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2s 


THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 


June 30, 1943 


Presiding Officer ex officio.—FRANKLIN D. Roosrvet, President of the United 
States. 
Chancellor—Hartan F. STone, Chief Justice of the United States. 
Members of the Institution: 
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States. 
Henry A. WALLACE, Vice President of the United States. 
Haran F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States. 
CorRDELL HUuLL, Secretary of State. 
HENRY MORGENTHAD, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury. 
Henry L. Strmson, Secretary of War. 
FRANCIS Bippre, Attorney General. 
FRANK C. WALKER, Postmaster General. 
FRANK Knox, Secretary of the Navy. 
Harotp L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior. 
CLAUDE R. WicKARD, Secretary of Agriculture. 
JESSE H. Jonsrs, Secretary of Commerce. 
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary of Labor. 
Regents of the Institution: 
HARLAN F.. Srone, Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor. 
Henry A. WALLACE, Vice President of the United States. 
Cuartes L. McNary, Member of the Senate. 
ALBEN W. BARKLEY, Member of the Senate. 
BENNETT CHAMP CLARK, Member of the Senate. 
CLARENCE CANNON, Member of the House of Representatives. 
Foster STEARNS, Member of the House of Representatives. 
EpwaArp E. Cox, Member of the House of Representatives. 
FrEDERIC A. DELANO, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
Roranp S. Morris, citizen of Pennsylvania. 
Harvey N. Davis, citizen of New Jersey. 
ARTHUR H. Compton, citizen of Illinois. 
VANNEVAR BusH, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
FREDERIC C. WALCOTT, citizen of Connecticut. 
Ezecutive Committee.—FREDERIC A. DELANO, VANNEVAR BUSH, CLARENCE CANNON. 
Secretary.—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 
Assistant Secretary.—ALEXANDER WETMORE. 
Administrative assistant to the Secretary. HArRry W. Dorsey. 
Treasurer.—NIcHOLAS W. DORSEY. 
Chief, editorial diwision.—WEBSTER P. TRUE. 
Librarian.—Leiwa F. CLARK. 
Personnel officer.—HEten A. OLMSTED. 
Property clerk.—JAMES H. HILL. 


UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


Keeper ex officio.—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 
Director.—ALEXANDER WETMORE. 
Associate Director.—JOHN HE. GRAF. 


vil 


vill ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
SCIENTIFIO STAFF 


DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY: : 
Frank M. Setzler, head curator; A. J. Andrews, chief preparator. 

Division of Ethnology: H. W. Krieger, curator; Arthur P. Rice, collaborator 

Division of Archeology: Neil M. Judd, curator; Waldo R. Wedel, associate 
curator; R. G. Paine, senior scientific aid; J. Townsend Russell, honorary 
assistant curator of Old World archeology. 

Division of Physical Anthropology: T. Dale Stewart, curator; M. T. Newman, 
associate curator.* 

Collaborator in anthropology: George Grant MacCurdy. Associate in . 
anthropology: AleS Hrdliéka. 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY: 
Waldo L. Schmitt, head curator; W. L. Brown, chief taxidermist ; 
Aime M. Awl, illustrator. 

Division of Mammals: Remington Kellogg, curator; D. H. Johnson, associate 
curator; H. Harold Shamel, senior scientific aid; A. Brazier Howell, col- 
laborator; Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., associate. 

Division of Birds: Herbert Friedmann, curator; H. G. Deignan, associate 
curator; W. A. Weber, assistant curator; Alexander Wetmore, custodian 
of alcoholic and skeleton collections; Arthur C. Bent, collaborator. 

Division of Reptiles and Batrachians: Doris M. Cochran, associate curator. 

Division of Fishes: Leonard P. Schultz, curator; E. D. Reid, senior scientific 
aid. 

Division of Insects: L. O. Howard, honorary curator; Edward A. Chapin, 
curator; R. E. Blackwelder, associate curator. 

Section of Hymenoptera: S. A. Rohwer, custodian; W. M. Mann, assist- 
ant custodian; Robert A. Cushman, assistant custodian. 

Section of Myriapoda: O. F. Cook, custodian. 

Section of Diptera: Charles T. Greene, assistant custodian. 

Section of Coleoptera: L. L. Buchanan, specialist for Casey collection. 

Section of Lepidoptera: J. T. Barnes, collaborator. 

Section of Forest Tree Beetles: A. D. Hopkins, custodian. 

Division of Marine Invertebrates: Waldo L. Schmitt, curator; C. R. Shoe- 
maker, associate curator; James O. Maloney, aid; Mrs. Harriet Rich- 
ardson Searle, collaborator; Max M. Ellis, collaborator; J. Percy Moore, 
collaborator; Joseph A. Cushman, collaborator in Foraminifera. 

Division of Mollusks: Paul Bartsch, curator; Harald A. Rehder, associate 
curator; Joseph P. HE. Morrison, assistant curator. 

Section of Helminthological Collections: Benjamin Schwartz, 
collaborator. 

Division of Echinoderms: Austin H. Clark, curator. 

Division of Plants (National Herbarium) : W. R. Maxon, curator; Ellsworth 
P. Killip, associate curator; Emery C. Leonard, assistant curator; Conrad 
V. Morton, assistant curator; Egbert H. Walker, assistant curator; John 
A. Stevenson, custodian of C. G. Lloyd mycological collection. 

Section of Grasses: Agnes Chase, custodian. 

Section of Cryptogamic Collections: O. F. Cook, assistant curator. 
Section of Higher Algae: W. T. Swingle, custodian. 

Section of Lower Fungi: D. G. Fairchild, custodian. 

Section of Diatoms: Paul S. Conger, custodian. 


*Now on war duty. 


REPORT OF THH SECRETARY Ix 


DEPARTMENT OF BroLtocy.—Continued. 

Associates in Zoology: Theodore S. Palmer, William B. Marshall, A. G. Bév- 
ing, W. K. Fisher. 

Associate in Botany: Henri Pittier. 

Collaborator in Zoology : Robert Sterling Clark. 

Collaborators in Biology: A. K. Fisher, David C. Graham. 

DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY: 
R. S. Bassler, head curator; Jessie G. Beach, aid. 

Division of Mineralogy and Petrology: W. F. Foshag, curator; BE. P. Hender- 
son, associate curator; B. O. Reberholt, senior scientific aid; Frank I. 
Hess, custodian of rare metals and rare earths. 

Division of Invertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany: Charles E. Resser, 
curator; Gustav A. Cooper, associate curator; Marion F. Willoughby, 
senior scientific aid. 

Section of Invertebrate Paleontology: T. W. Stanton, custodian of 
Mesozoic collection; Paul Bartsch, curator of Cenozoie collection. 

Division of Vertebrate Paleontology: Charles W. Gilmore, curator; C. Lewis 
Gazin, associate curator* ; Norman H. Boss, chief preparator. 

Associates in Mineralogy: W. T. Schaller, S. H. Perry. 

Associate in Paleontology: BE. O. Ulrich, T. W. Vaughan. 

Associate in Petrology: Whitman Cross. 

DEPARTMENT OF IEENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIES: 
Carl W. Mitman, head curator. 

Division of Engineering: C. W. Mitman, head curator in charge; Frank A. 
Taylor, curator.* 

Section of Transportation and Civil Engineering; Frank A. Taylor, in 
charge.* 

Section of Aeronautics: Paul E. Garber, associate curator,* F. C. Reed, 
acting associate curator. 

Section of Mechanical Engineering: Frank A. Taylor, in charge.* 

Section of Electrical Engineering and Communications: Frank A. 
Taylor, in charge.* 

Section of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering: Carl W. Mitman, in 
charge. 

Section of Physical Sciences and Measurement: Frank A. Taylor, in 
charge.* 

Section of Tools: Frank A. Taylor, in charge.* 

Division of Crafts and Industries: Frederick L. Lewton, curator; Elizabeth 

W. Rosson, senior scientific aid. 
Section of Textiles: Frederick L. Lewton, in charge. 
Section of Woods and Wood Technology: William N. Watkins, associate 
curator. 
Section of Chemical Industries: Frederick L. Lewton, in charge. 
Section of Agricultural Industries: Frederick L. Lewton, in charge. 

Division of Medicine and Public Health: Charles Whitebread, associate 
curator. 

Division of Graphic Arts: R. P. Tolman, curator. 

Section of Photography: A. J. Olmsted, associate curator. 
DIvIsIon oF History: T. T. Belote, curator; Charles Carey, assistant curator; 
Catherine L. Manning, philatelist. 


*Now on war duty. 


DS ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF 


Chief of correspondence and documents.—H. S. BRYANT. 

Assistant chief of correspondence and documents.—L. BH. COMMBERFORD. 
Superintendent of buildings and labor.—R. H. TREMBLY. 

Assistant superintendent of buildings and labor.—CHARLEsS C. SINCLAIR. 
EHditor.—PavuL H. OEFHSER. 

Accountant and auditor.—N. W. DorsEY. 

Photographer.—A. J. OLMSTED. 

Property clerk.—LAWRENCE L. OLIVER. 

Assistant librarian.—ELiIsaBeTH H. GAZIN. 


NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 
Trustees: 
THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES, Chairman. 
THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
THE SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
DAvip K. E. BRUCE. 
FERDINAND LAMMOT BELIN. 
DUNCAN PHILLIPS. 
SAMUEL H. KREss. 
JOSEPH HE. WIDENER. 
President.—Davw K. E. Bruce. 
Vice President.—FERDINAND LAMMOT BELIN. 
Associate Vice President.—CHESTER DALE. 
Director.—Davip E. FINLEY. 
Administrator.—H. A. McBrIDE. 
Secretary-Treasurer and General Counsel. HUNTINGTON CAIRNS. 
Chief Curator.—JoHN WALKER. 
Assistant Director.—MACGILL JAMES. 


NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 


Acting Director.—RurEt P. ToLMAN. 


FREER GALLERY OF ART 


Director.—A. G. WENLEY. 

Assistant Director.—GRACE DUNHAM GUEST. 
Associate in research.—J. A. Pope. 
Superintendent.—W. N. RAWLEY. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


Chief.—MATTHEW W. STIRLING. 

Senior ethnologists.—H. B. Cotiins, Jr., JOHN P. HARRINGTON, JOHN R. SWANTON. 
Senior archeologist.—FRaNK H. H. Roserts, Jr. 

Senior anthropologist —JULIAN H. STEWARD. 

Associate anthropologist—W. N. FENTON. 

Editor.—M. HeLtren PALMER. 

Librarian.—MiriAmM B. KETCHUM. 

Illustrator.—EpWIn G. CASSEDY. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY XI 


INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 


Secretary (in charge).—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 
Acting Chief Clerk.—¥F. E. Gass. 


NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 


Director.—WiLLiAM M. MANN. 
Assistant Director.—ERNEST P. WALKER. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 


Director.—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 

DIvIsIoN OF ASTROPHYSICAL RESEARCH: Loyal B. Aldrich, assistant director; 
William H. Hoover, senior astrophysicist. 

DIvISION oF RADIATION AND ORGANISMS: Earl §. Johnston, assistant director; 
Edward D. McAlister, senior physicist; Leland B. Clark, engineer (precision 
instruments) ; Robert L. Weintraub, associate biochemist. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 


C. G. ABBOT 
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1948 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 


GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to submit herewith my report show- 
ing the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and 
the Government bureaus under its administrative charge during the 
fiscal year ended. June 30, 1948. The first 12 pages contain a sum- 
mary account of the affairs of the Institution; it will be noted that 
many activities usually included in this section are missing, wartime 
conditions having forced their suspension. Appendixes 1 to 10 give 
more detailed reports of the operations of the National Museum, 
the National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the 
Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the In- 
ternational Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, the Astro- 
physical Observatory, which now includes the divisions of astro- 
physical research and radiation and organisms, the Smithsonian 
library, and of the publications issued under the direction of the 
Institution. On page 89 is the financial report of the executive com- 
mittee of the Board of Regents. 


THE SMITHSONIAN IN WARTIME 


At the close of the fiscal year, 83 employees of the Institution had 
joined the armed forces and 5 had left to serve in special capacities 
in the various war agencies. Those leaving included 10 members 
of the scientific staff. Many of those remaining at the Institution 
devoted 100 percent of their time to war projects assigned by the 
Army, Navy, or war agencies, and all other staff members were oc- 
cupied in varying degree with such projects, depending on the extent 
to which their special knowledge was in demand. In short, all per- 
sonnel and facilities of the Institution and its branches were made 
available and were extensively used in the prosecution of the war. 

The Institution’s normal activities were kept alive to the extent of 
continuing observations the cessation of which would leave perma- 
nent gaps in records essential to future investigations, and of main- 
taining and caring for the National collections. All other research 


1 


2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


and exploration projects not necessary for the orderly resumption 
of cultural activities after the war have been suspended for the dura- 
tion with one exception, namely, those activities related to a closer 
cultural cooperation with the other American republics. Such co- 
operation is of vital importance not only for better relations between 
neighboring countries in the present time of emergency, but also as 
a permanent program after the war. The Institution is particularly 
well fitted to take part in such a program because of its many years 
of friendly contact with the scientists and scientific institutions of 
the other American republics. 

Thus the wartime policy of the Institution has been to use all its 
resources to aid in winning the war, while continuing insofar as 
possible the recording and publishing of essential scientific observa- 
tions and such curatorial work as is necessary for the proper care 
of the National collections. 

The Smithsonian War Committee, appointed by me early in 1942, 
has continued to meet regularly with the aim of originating or con- 
sidering plans to increase the Smithsonian’s contributions to the war 
effort. The Committee has made many recommendations during the 
year, most of which I have approved and put into effect. Several 
war projects have also come to the Institution through my own con- 
tacts with Army and Navy officials or through contacts made by 
other Smithsonian staff members. 

It seems desirable to present here, as a record of the Institution’s 
part in the war, a brief statement of such of its wartime activities 
as can be made public. As regards the year’s publications, most of 
which related to the war or to the other American republics, a state- 
ment will be found farther on in this report under the heading 
“Publications.” It will be seen that much of the Institution’s con- 
tribution is of an indirect nature, for the obvious reason that an 
organization can only undertake work for which its staff has the 
requisite training and experience. In total war, however, accurate 
knowledge of obscure peoples and places and other subjects chiefly 
of academic interest in normal times suddenly becomes of vital im- 
portance to the Army and Navy. In furnishing some of this infor- 
mation, urgently needed and often hard to get, lies the Institution’s 
major contribution. 

Strategic information to war agencies.—As stated, the Institution’s 
greatest usefulness, as in the case of other similar organizations, 
derived from the specialized knowledge of its scientific staff, which 
provided the answers to innumerable urgent questions continually 
facing the Army, Navy, and war agencies. More than a thousand 
recorded inquiries had been answered up to the close of the fiscal 
year, and probably as many more for one reason or another were 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 3 


not included in the record. The great majority of these were not 
simple questions that could be answered on the spot, but were of 
such a nature that considerable time was required to provide a com- 
plete answer. Many inquiries involved a series of conferences or 
the writing of extended illustrated reports. A list of selected ex- 
amples tabulated by the War Committee shows not only the very 
wide range of these questions, but also the extent to which modern 
total war depends on scientific knowledge. The Institution was in 
a peculiarly favorable position to render this type of service because 
of its location in Washington, the headquarters also of the War and 
Navy Departments and most of the war agencies. It had the further 
advantage of being closely associated with the Ethnogeographic 
Board, discussed in the next paragraph. 

Ethnogeographic Board.—Early in the fiscal year the Institution 
joined with the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social 
Science Research Council, and the National Research Council in 
sponsoring the Ethnogeographic Board, a nongovernmental agency 
whose function is to act as a clearinghouse between the above insti- 
tutions and other scientific and educational organizations throughout 
the country, and the Army,.Navy, and war agencies within the 
Government. The Director of the Board is Dr. Wiliam Duncan 
Strong, formerly of the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology 
and at present on leave from Columbia University. The offices of 
the Board are in the Smithsonian building, a portion of its operating 
costs have been defrayed by the Institution, and three members of 
the scientific staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology have been 
detailed to assist the Director of the Board. The War and Navy 
Departments assigned liaison officers, and under the energetic leader- 
ship of Dr. Strong the Board has become the focal point for the 
finding of the best sources of strategic information in the fields of 
science within its scope. 

War research projects—A number of research and consultation 
projects have come to the Institution through the Ethnogeographic 
Board, the Smithsonian War Committee, and contacts of various 
officials of the Institution. As these were all of a strictly confiden- 
tial character, nothing can be said about them except that they were 
concerned with many different branches of science, including an- 
thropology, biology, geology, physics, and meteorology. These proj- 
ects occupied practically the entire time of the instrument and 
mechanical shops of the Astrophysical Observatory, the division of 
radiation and organisms, and the division of engineering, as well 
as the time of numerous members of the scientific staff. 

Inter-American cooperation.—For many years the Institution has 
been in close contact with scientists and cultural organizations in the 


4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


other American republics through its anthropological, zoological, and 
botanical explorations and field work in that area and through the 
wide exchange of its publications for those of scientific institutions of 
Mexico and South and Central America. Thus the Institution has 
been in an excellent position to undertake several major projects de- 
signed to improve cultural relations with our neighboring countries 
to the south. Under the direction of Dr. Julian H. Steward, of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, a Handbook of the Indians of South 
America has been brought practically to completion and is expected 
to be published during the coming year as a Bulletin of the Bureau. 
This comprehensive publication, which will form four volumes of 
text and two of bibliography, is a truly cooperative undertaking, 
for 50 percent of the contributors are scientists in the other American 
republics. Also on the initiative of Dr. Steward, and with Dr. Ralph 
L. Beals as temporary director, an Inter-American Society of Geog- 
raphy and Anthropology has been organized, with membership open 
to scientists anywhere in the hemisphere. More than 700 members 
have already been enrolled from nearly all countries on both con- 
tinents. A journal with articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese 
will record the activities of the Society. The first part of a “Checklist 
of the Coleopterous Insects of Mexico, Central America, the West 
Indies, and South America,” prepared under the direction of Dr. R. E. 
Blackwelder, is now in press as a Bulletin of the National Museum. A 
long-needed tool for entomologists, this check list will be used for 
years to come by scientists of the entire hemisphere. A number of 
Smithsonian scientists have visited other American republics during 
the year in the interest of closer professional collaboration. 

Other wartime activities —The new series of publications, Smith- 
sonian War Background Studies, will be described in detail in an- 
other place. I will say here only that the series is filling a real need 
for authentic information on the less well-known peoples and regions 
involved in the war, and the demand for the books was so great that 
editions had to be increased progressively from 3,500 to 8,000 copies. 
In addition both the Army and Navy ordered editions of from 1,000 
to 10,000 copies of several of the papers for the use of service personnel. 

One of the first recommendations of the Smithsonian War Com- 
mittee was for a roster of the technical and geographical knowledge 
of the Institution’s staff. The roster has been at the service of the 
Ethnogeographic Board and has been of material aid in enabling 
the Army, Navy, and war agencies to locate quickly the specialist or 
the knowledge they needed. 

Under the direction of the Smithsonian library, a file of illustra- 
tions of strategic areas appearing in Smithsonian publications and in 
the more obscure technical journals has been completed and made avail- 
able to war agencies. A brief description of the resources of the Smith- 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 5 


sonian library of nearly a million volumes has been distributed to key 
personnel. 

For the benefit of members of the armed forces, the Museum build- 
ings have been kept open all day Sunday. A set of six colored post 
cards showing striking Museum exhibits was given to servicemen 
entering the Arts and Industries building, where facilities for writing 
and mailing the cards were made available. More than 300,000 cards 
were given during the year. A small leaflet welcoming service men 
and women to the Institution was also made available; in it is de- 
scribed the part played by Army and Navy personnel in the past in 
building up the National collections. At the close of the year a col- 
lector’s manual for members of the armed forces was in preparation, 
and a plan was being worked out to provide docents for Museum tours 
for service personnel. 


SUMMARY OF THE YEAR’S ACTIVITIES OF THE BRANCHES 
OF THE INSTITUTION 


National Museum.—Throughout the year members of the scientific 
staff have been occupied with furnishing technical information and 
carrying on research connected with the conduct of the war. The 
Museum buildings have been kept open all day Sundays for the 
benefit of service men and women. The Museum collections were in- 
creased by 230,231 specimens, bringing the total number of catalog 
entries to 17,808,471. Outstanding among the new accessions were the 
following: In anthropology, 1,443 specimens of pottery and figurine 
fragments from various localities in the United States and Mexico, a 
ceremonial mace of serpentine from Maré, Loyalty Islands, and 
weapons, armor, and musical instruments from the Philippines; in 
biology, a complete skeleton of the African bush elephant, birds from 
New Guinea and Eritrea, the latter a hitherto unrepresented locality, 
two large collections of fishes—one comprising more than 50,000 
specimens transferred from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the other 
nearly 35,000 specimens collected in Venezuela by the curator of fishes, 
and the Frank C. Baker collection of mollusks, comprising 10,000 spec- 
imens, one of the important mollusk collections of North America; in 
geology, the John W. Langsdale collection of minerals, a 316-carat star 
sapphire and a 54-carat blue Brazilian topaz, five volumes containing 
1,500 photomicrographs of the structure in meteoric irons, presented 
by Dr. Stuart H. Perry, associate in mineralogy, and a collection 
of 2,000 Triassic fossils from Nevada; in engineering and industries, 
an original truss of an iron railroad bridge built in America in 1845, 
two sets of aircraft identification models used by our armed forces, 
and a collection of specimens to be used as an exhibit of alternates and 
substitutes developed recently to cope with shortages of war materials; 
in history, the finest accession of firearms, swords, and daggers received 

566766—44—2 


6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


by the Museum in recent years, the gift of Ralph G. Packard. The 
few expeditions that were in the field during the year were concerned 
with matters connected with the conduct of the war or were the result 
of pre-war commitments. Because of travel difficulties, the number of 
visitors dropped to 1,355,269 as compared with slightly over 2,000,000 
in the previous year. A definite count showed that servicemen aver- 
aged 25 to 35 percent of the total number of visitors. The Museum 
published its Annual Report, 3 Bulletins, 1 Contribution from the 
National Herbarium, and 25 Proceedings papers. Staff changes in- 
cluded the death of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, head curator of the 
department of biology, and the appointment of Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, 
curator of the division of marine invertebrates, to succeed him. Nu- 
merous members of the staff were furloughed for military and naval 
duty. 

National Gallery of Art.—The total attendance at the Gallery for 
the year was 1,508,081, a daily average of 4,182 of whom more than 
one-fourth were service men and women. Special activities for mem- 
bers of the armed forces have included Sunday evening musical con- 
certs, Sunday night suppers for servicemen, and the Servicemen’s 
Room, which has furnished a place of relaxation for many men in the 
service. Among the outstanding acquisitions of the year were a col- 
lection of 23 paintings from Chester Dale; the Widener collection of 
paintings, sculpture, and other objects of art, one of the greatest 
donations ever made to any Museum; and the famous Rosenwald col- 
lection of prints, numbering over 6,500 items. A number of special 
exhibitions were held during the year, including an exhibition of 
Chilean contemporary art, the Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial exhibi- 
tion, and an exhibition sponsored by Life magazine of 125 paintings by 
leading American artists, in cooperation with the War Department, 
in United States battle zones. There were printed during the year a 
check list of the Widener collection, a new general information 
pamphlet, a catalog, a portfolio of colored reproductions, and nine 
pamphlets dealing with the Gallery and its collections. The daily 
Gallery tours of the collection have been supplemented by tours for 
service men and women on Saturdays. A motion picture on the 
National Gallery of Art was completed in cooperation with the Office 
of Strategic Services; this will be widely circulated among educa- 
tional institutions and the general public. 

National Collection of Fine Arts.——Because of crowded conditions 
in Washington the annual meeting of the Smithsonian Art Com- 
mission was not held, and proffered gifts of works of art are being 
held by the National Collection of Fine Arts to be passed upon at the 
next meeting of the Commission. Two members of the Commission 
died during the year: John E. Lodge, chairman of the subcommittee 
on Oriental art, and Charles L. Borie, chairman of the Commission 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 7 


since 1935. Fourteen miniatures were acquired through the Catherine 
Walden Myer fund. Five paintings were purchased under the Henry 
Ward Ranger bequest; by the terms of the bequest these are as- 
signed to various art institutions and under certain conditions are 
prospective additions to the National Collection of Fine Arts. Seven 
special exhibitions were held, as follows: Oil paintings, water colors, 
and pastels by Seforita Carmen Madrigal Nieto, of Costa Rica; oil 
paintings by Senorita Pachita Crespi, of Costa Rica; oil paintings 
by Frank C. Kirk, of New York; miniatures by members of the 
Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters; oil paintings and designs 
by Simon Lissim, of New York; water colors by Leonora Quarterman, 
of Savannah, Ga.; oil paintings by Walter King Stone, of Ithaca, N. Y. 

Freer Gallery of Art-—Additions to the collections included Chinese 
bronze, Persian gold, Persian and Indian paintings, Chinese porce- 
lain, and Chinese and Persian pottery. Besides the regular curatorial 
work, the staff devoted much of its time to supplying information to 
war agencies and to translating matter from Chinese and Japanese 
sources, amounting to hundreds of typewritten pages. In addition, 
Chinese and Japanese names on maps of war areas were identified and 
transliterated to the number of more than 5,000. The Director gave 
a series of lectures to Washington school teachers on Chinese culture 
as reflected in the fine arts in furtherance of a plan to disseminate 
knowledge of China in the public schools. Visitors to the gallery 
numbered 53,769 for the year, and 12 groups were given docent service 
or instruction in the study room. John Ellerton Lodge, Director of 
the Freer Gallery from its beginning in 1920, died on December 29, 
1942. Under Mr. Lodge’s wise administration was developed the 
work of the Gallery in the study and the acquisition of Oriental fine 
arts. He was succeeded as Director by Archibald G. Wenley, asso- 
ciate in research at the Gallery. 

Bureau of American Ethnology.—Activities concerned with the 
other American republics have been emphasized during the year, and 
a large part of the time of the staff has been devoted to war projects. 
Several members have worked nearly full time in cooperation with 
the Ethnogeographic Board in preparing strategic information for 
the Army, Navy, and war agencies. M. W. Stirling, Chief, directed 
the fifth National Geographic-Smithsonian archeological expedition 
to southern Mexico. Excavations at the site of La Venta in southern 
Tabasco resulted in the discovery of construction details of the stone- 
fenced enclosure, one of the central features of the site. Three rich 
burials contained jade offerings of high quality. Dr. J. R. Swanton 
completed the proofreading of his 850-page bulletin entitled “The 
Indians of the Southeastern United States,” and did further work 
on the now extinct language of the Timucua Indians of Florida. 


8 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Dr. J. P. Harrington investigated the Chilcotin languages of north- 
ern California, and later in the year devoted his time to the prepa- 
ration of material for the linguistic section of the Handbook of 
South American Indians. Dr. F. H. H. Roberts, Jr., investigated 
a site in eastern Wyoming from which more than 70 projectile points 
of the Yuma type were recovered. Dr. Roberts devoted the last two- 
thirds of the year to the preparation of a series of “survival” arti- 
cles from data furnished by members of the Smithsonian staff. These 
articles were made available to the armed forces through the Ethno- 
geographic Board. Dr. J. H. Steward continued his work as editor 
of the Handbook of South American Indians, assisted by Dr. Alfred 
Métraux of the Bureau staff. The Handbook, which will consist of 
four volumes of text and two of bibliography, was three-fourths com- 
pleted at the close of the year. Dr. H. B. Collins, Jr., was engaged 
in furnishing regional and other information to the armed services, 
mostly in connection with the Ethnogeographic Board. Dr. W. N. 
Fenton devoted most of his time to projects received by the Ethno- 
geographic Board from the armed services, and continued to serve 
as a member of the Smithsonian War Committee. Miss Frances 
Densmore completed two large manuscripts on Indian music. The 
Bureau published its Annual Report and three Bulletins. The 
Bureau library has been much in use as a source of material for the 
Ethnogeographic Board and the war agencies. 

International Exchanges——The International Exchange Service is 
the official United States agency for the interchange of governmental 
and scientific publications between this country and all other coun- 
tries of the world. During the year the Service handled a total of 
513,460 packages of publications with a total weight of 248,648 
pounds. Although the war prevents shipments to many foreign coun- 
tries, nevertheless consignments went forward during the year to 
all countries in the Western Hemisphere and to a number in the 
Eastern Hemisphere, namely, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 
Republic of Ireland, Portugal, the U.S.S.R., Union of South Africa, 
India, Australia, and New Zealand. Packages which cannot be for- 
warded during the war are held for later delivery. Because of the 
limited space at the Institution, arrangements were made to store 
the large accumulation of such material at the Library of Congress. 
In April 1942 the Office of Censorship placed a ban on the sending 
abroad of the Congressional Record and the Federal Register; in 
February 19438 this ban was lifted, and the Record and Register were 
again forwarded to those countries that could be reached. 

National Zoological Park.—By reducing maintenance work to the 
absolute minimum, it has been possible to carry on the primary func- 
tion of the Zoo, the exhibition of a wide variety of animal life in the 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 9 


best possible condition, in spite of the increasing shortages of man- 
power, food, and materials. The functioning of the Zoo is thought 
to be particularly important in wartime because it provides free 
recreation and enjoyment for thousands of war workers and members 
of the armed forces. Although automobile traffic to the Zoo prac- 
tically ceased, nevertheless a greatly increased number of visitors 
walked or came by bus or streetcar. The total number of visitors for 
the year was 1,974,500. Officials of the Zoo have furnished much 
information regarding animals to the War and Navy Departments, 
other Government agencies, and medical groups. Conditions have 
precluded expeditions by the Zoo for the collection of animals, and 
few animals are offered for sale by dealers. New specimens, there- 
fore, have come mainly through gift and exchange. In addition, 101 
mammals were born and 83 birds hatched at the Zoo during the year. 
Despite adverse conditions, six species never before in the collection 
were obtained; these included a specimen of the rarely exhibited 
spectacled bear of the northern Andes and a white starling from 
Java, also rare in captivity. At the close of the year the collection 
contained 2,485 animals representing 684 species and subspecies. 

Astrophysical Observatory.—A prediction of the march of solar 
variation from 1939 through 1945, based on periodicities revealed by 
the solar-constant values published in volume 6 of the Annals of the 
Observatory, shows that the years 1940 to 1947 will be the most im- 
portant years to study the sun’s variation since the early twenties. 
For this reason, every effort has been made to keep the three field 
observatories in Chile, California, and New Mexico in operation. 
Up to the close of the year, these efforts had been successful. Further 
studies of the short-interval changes of solar radiation in their rela- 
tion to weather have been even more convincing than previous re- 
sults. The weather effects of individual solar changes are found to 
last at least 2 weeks. Most of the time of the staff at Washington 
has been devoted to war-research problems assigned by the war serv- 
ices. In the division of radiation and organisms, the regular research 
program was discontinued in August 1942, and since then practically 
the entire time of the staff has been directed toward solving war 
problems. 

THE ESTABLISHMENT 


The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 
1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 
land, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of 
America “to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 
of knowledge among men.” In receiving the property and accepting 
the trust, Congress determined that the Federal Government was 


10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


without authority to administer the trust directly, and, therefore, 
constituted an “establishment” whose statutory members are “the 
President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of 
the executive departments.” 


THE BOARD OF REGENTS 


Changes in the Board of Regents during the fiscal year were as 
follows: 

Senator Charles L. McNary, of Oregon, having been reelected to 
the Senate for the term beginning January 3, 1943, was reappointed 
by the Vice President on February 4, 1948, as a regent to succeed 
himself. 

On October 26, 1942, the Honorable William P. Cole, Jr., of Mary- 
land, resigned from the House of Representatives, which automati- 
cally terminated his term as a regent; on January 12, 1943, the 
Speaker appointed Representative Edward E. Cox, of Georgia, to 
succeed him. 

The term of Dr. Roland S. Morris, of Pennsylvania, as a citizen 
regent, expired February 20, 1942. By Joint Resolution of Congress 
approved July 28, 1942, he was reappointed to succeed himself for 
the statutory term of 6 years. 

The roll of regents at the close of the fiscal year was as follows: 
Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor; 
Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States; members 
from the Senate—Charles L. McNary, Alben W. Barkley, Bennett 
Champ Clark; members from the House of Representatives—Clar- 
ence Cannon, Foster Stearns, Edward E. Cox; citizen members— 
Frederic A. Delano, Washington, D. C.; Roland §. Morris, Pennsyl- 
vania; Harvey N. Davis, New Jersey; Arthur H. Compton, Llinois; 
Vannevar Bush, Washington, D. C.; and Frederic C. Walcott, Con- 
necticut. 

Proceedings.—The annual meeting of the Board of Regents was 
held on January 15, 1943. The regents present were Chief Justice 
Harlan F. Stone, Chancellor; Vice President Henry A. Wallace; 
Representatives Clarence Cannon, Foster Stearns, and Edward E. 
Cox; citizen regents Frederic A. Delano, Roland S. Morris, Harvey 
N. Davis, Arthur H. Compton, and Vannevar Bush; and the Secre- 
tary, Dr. Charles G. Abbot. 

The Secretary presented his annual report covering the year’s 
activities of the parent Institution and of the several Government 
branches, which was accepted by the Board, as was also the report 
by Mr. Delano, of the executive committee, covering financial statis- 
tics of the Institution. The Secretary stated that owing to the 
exigencies of wartime travel, there had been no meeting of the Smith- 
sonian Art Commission during the year. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 11 


In his special report the Secretary outlined some of the more im- 
portant recent activities carried on by the Institution and the 
branches, with special emphasis on phases of the work directly con- 
nected with the war. 

FINANCES 


A statement on finances will be found in the report of the execu- 
tive committee of the Board of Regents, page 89. 


PUBLICATIONS 


In normal times the Institution publishes the results of researches 
by members of its scientific staff in several series, namely, the Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, the Bulletins and Proceedings of 
the National Museum, Contributions from the National Herbarium, 
the Bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Annals 
of the Astrophysical Observatory. It also publishes the Annual 
Reports of the Board of Regents, which contain a selection of articles 
summarizing developments in all branches of science, and other oc- 
casional publications. In wartime, however, publication has been 
restricted largely to material that relates to the war or is of value 
in strengthening cultural relations with the American nations to the 
south of us. Otherwise only such papers were sent to the printer 
during the year as seemed for one reason or another to be of sufficient 
importance to the advancement of science to warrant publication 
even in wartime. This wartime policy will not be apparent from 
the titles listed in this year’s report on publications, however, be- 
cause a large proportion of the papers issued went to the printer in 
the previous fiscal year before the policy went into effect. 

The new series, Smithsonian War Background Studies, begun in 
the summer of 1942, was pianned for the purpose of making avail- 
able authentic information on the less well-known areas and peoples 
involved in the war. Twelve numbers had been issued at the close 
of the fiscal year, and four others were in press. As the Far East 
and the Pacific islands are probably the least well-known of the war 
areas, the majority of the papers deal with those regions. A com- 
plete list of the papers issued and in press will be found in the 
report on publications, appendix 10. The demand for papers in the 
series was immediate and much larger than had been anticipated. 
The editions of the first few papers had been set at 3,500 copies, 
nearly twice as large as the usual editions of Smithsonian papers, 
but these were soon exhausted. Reprints of these were issued, and 
editions of later papers were successively increased until at the end 
of the year 8,000 copies were being printed. The demand, as might 
be expected, was greatest from Army and Navy organizations and 
personnel and from universities and schools. In addition to the 


12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Smithsonian editions, the Army and Navy ordered from 1,000 to 
10,000 copies of nearly all the papers in the series. 

Aside from the War Background Studies, there was a constant 
demand from Army, Navy, and war agencies for other Smithsonian 
publications, notably the Smithsonian Meteorological Tables, Smith- 
sonian Physical Tables, and World Weather Records. Of the 
Meteorological Tables, 5,557 copies were asked for by various Army 
units, most of them going to the Signal Corps. 

Among the outstanding publications of the year not related to 
the war may be mentioned “Compendium and Description of the West 
Indies,” by Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa, translated by Charles Upson 
Clark, a detailed itinerary of Spanish America written by a Car- 
melite missionary in 1628 or 1629; “Fishes of the Phoenix and Samoan 
Islands Collected in 1939, during the Expedition of the U. S. S. 
Bushnell,” by Leonard P. Schultz, curator of the division of fishes in 
the National Museum, who accompanied the expedition; and “The 
Native Tribes of Eastern Bolivia and Western Matto Grosso,” by 
Alfred Métraux. 

A total of 88 publications were issued during the year, and 194,057 
copies of these and other Smithsonian publications were distributed. 


LIBRARY 


The use of the Smithsonian library during the year by the scientific 
staff of the Institution was almost entirely in connection with the 
war, and more than 85 war agencies have made inquiries, borrowed 
books, and sent research workers to use the collections. The branch 
libraries of the National Museum and the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology especially have been constantly used by war workers because 
of their extensive resources of geographical and ethnological material. 
Receipt of foreign publications again dropped somewhat but not so 
sharply as during the preceding year. The quantity and quality of 
scientific publications is still maintained at a high level among our 
allies abroad. The publication and receipt of domestic scientific 
serials continues to be practically normal. Among the outstanding 
gifts of the year were a microfilmed set of the records of Linnean 
collections and manuscripts of the Linnean Society of London, and 
a collection of 350 books from Ralph G. Packard to accompany the 
collection of arms and armor given by him to the Museum. The 
record of the year’s activities includes 6,955 accessions, bringing the 
total holdings of the library to 907,645; 159 new exchanges arranged; 
3,631 “wants” received; 5,012 volumes and pamphlets cataloged; 
11,236 books and periodicals loaned; and 2,185 volumes sent to the 
bindery. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C. G. Assot, Secretary. 


APPENDIX 1 
REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the condi- 
tion and operation of the United States National Museum for the 
fiscal year ended June 30, 1943: 

Appropriations for the maintenance and operation of the National 
Museum for the year totaled $892,630, which was $61,652 more than 
for the previous year. 


THE MUSEUM IN WARTIME 


Although there has been a decrease in the total number of visitors 
to the Museum below that normal for times of peace, the number 
recorded, 1,355,269, indicates the great interest that exists in the 
exhibits. The change in hours to allow the public halls to be open all 
day Sunday has permitted many people to visit the buildings whose 
time schedules would not have otherwise made such visits possible. 
This is particularly true of service men and women, about 2,000 of 
whom have been included among the visitors each week end. 

Last year’s report indicated steps taken for adequate safeguard 
of collections. These precautions have gone forward, and a pro- 
gram of training has been initiated among groups of employees for 
the protection of visitors, employees, and the various buildings. Air- 
raid alarm systems have been installed, fire-fighting, air-raid, and 
first-aid equipment procured, air-raid shelters designated, and com- 
plete black-out facilities where necessary established. Practice air- 
raid drills were held, both in cooperation with the District of Columbia 
and independently of the city-wide drills. 

Throughout the year members of the staff have been occupied with 
considerable work connected with the conduct of the war, either 
through direct contact with various war agencies or through the 
Ethnogeographic Board. This has included “spot” information in 
various fields, research, and experiment. The variety of these subjects 
is indicated by the following enumeration of some of the items on 
which data were requested : Camouflage plants; natural vegetation of 
specific regions; illustrations of poisonous plants and of emergency 
food plants and data regarding them; destruction of mosquito-har- 
boring epiphytes; distribution of certain plants of known economic 


13 


14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19438 


importance; botanical exploration ; the palatability of the flesh of land, 
fresh-water, and marine animals, their use for food, and methods of 
capture; the serviceability of hides and skins for various purposes; 
disease transmission ; noxious, poisonous, or otherwise dangerous ani- 
mals; intermediate hosts of animal and human parasites; aid in the 
preparation of survival manuals and other military and naval hand- 
books; distributional lists of insects and other animals of medical im- 
portance; outlines for insect surveys in foreign areas; instruction in 
mosquito identification; collection and preservation of specimens, 
especially those of medical importance; supplying duplicate sets of 
insect material not otherwise readily obtainable for the use of Army 
and Navy medical schools; biological and oceanographic problems; 
marine fouling organisms; bibliographic surveys; recommendations 
regarding personnel. 

Assistance has been given in the identification of tribal culture 
patterns chiefly of the island peoples of the West Pacific area and of 
continental southeastern Asia. Other information provided, in this 
instance obtained from Museum photographic files, related to the need 
of our aviators and soldiers to recognize religious caste markings, and, 
to assist in the orientation of aviators, the types of house construction 
in various parts of southern Asia. A mass of information directly 
based on the collections was given to such agencies as the Board of 
Economic Warfare and the War Production Board, bearing directly 
on the development of the use of substitute materials for civilian use. 
Various articles describing the more remote peoples and their cultures 
were prepared and published. 


COLLECTIONS 


The Museum collections were increased by 230,231 specimens, which 
were included in 1,177 separate accessions. Because of wartime con- 
ditions a decrease of 211 accessions, 54,351 specimens, in comparison 
with the number received during the previous year was not unex- 
pected. The five departments registered specimens received as fol- 
lows: Anthropology, 2,514; biology, 213,823; geology, 9,725; engi- 
neering and industries, 2,266; and history, 1,902. Most of the ac- 
cessions were acquired as gifts from individuals or as a transfer of 
specimens by Government departments. The complete report on 
the Museum, published as a separate document, includes a detailed list 
of accessions, but the more important are summarized below. Cata- 
log entries in all departments now total 17,808,471. 

Anthropology.—Transferred to the division of archeology by Gov- 
ernment departments were 1,443 specimens of earthenware vessels, 
potsherds, and figurine fragments from several localities in Mexico 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 15 


and the United States. Important gifts from individuals included 
24 earthenware vessels, clay heads, and projectile points from Mex- 
ico; 2 wooden figurines excavated in Florida; and 1 obsidian mirror 
from a stream bed in Ecuador. Outstanding among the specimens 
donated to the division of ethnology was a ceremonial mace of serpen- 
tine from the Island of Maré. This specimen is an excellent example 
of the ceremonial weapons described in French scientific literature 
on New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. Other ethnological ob- 
jects of special interest are weapons, pieces of armor, inscriptions 
on bamboo, and musical instruments from the Philippine Islands, and 
fishing paraphernalia, tools, utensils, dance masks, a feathered dance 
headdress, and hand-woven costumes from various South and Central 
American localities. The collection of ceramics was augmented by 
porcelain articles from Capo di Monte molds, dating to about 1821, 
and examples of painted terra cotta made presumably by Greek colo- 
nists at Apulia, Italy, during the fourth century B. C., and excavated 
at Pompeii. Interesting examples of American glass included “Bur- 
mese” and “Peachblow” articles manufactured in Massachusetts and 
“Case” glass from West Virginia. Among the various collections 
assigned to the section of period art and textiles were antique jewelry 
from Scotland, Hungary, Portugal, France, Egypt, China, Ceylon, 
and the Philippine Islands; Spanish, French, and Chinese antique 
ornamental fans; and a handsomely ornamented snuffbox bearing 
the registry mark of Bergen, Norway, presented by Mrs. Stejneger 
at the expressed wish of the late Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, for many 
years head curator of the department of biology. Notable gifts to 
the division of physical anthropology included Indian skeletal re- 
mains from two ossuaries on a farm in Prince Georges County, Md., 
completing a collection from this locality begun in former years, and 
a midget’s skull of 485 cc. capacity, the smallest human adult skull 
thus far reported. 

Biology.—The first complete skeleton of the African bush elephant 
(Loxodonta cylotis) to come to the national collections and four 
small rodents collected in the endemic plague area in Boliva were 
the most noteworthy accessions in the division of mammals. 

Particularly welcome among the birds accessioned during the year 
were several forms new to the collection: Representatives of the 
pheasant genus Anwrophasis and the shrike genus E'ulacestoma from 
New Guinea; 2 specimens of the black-lored grass warbler (Cisticola 
nigrilora) ; 65 species of Ecuadorian birds; the type of the warbler 
Prinia flaviventris delacouri; and 8 avian specimens from Eritrea, a 
hitherto unrepresented locality. Another interesting accession in- 
cluded birds from the widely scattered collections of the United States 
Exploring Expedition of 1838-42. 


16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Two rare forms of West Indian snakes were added to the collec- 
tion of reptiles and amphibians—Darlingtonia haetiana, from Haiti, 
and 7'yphlops richardii, from St. Thomas. 

Two large collections of fishes were received, one by transfer from 
the Fish and Wildlife Service, comprising more than 50,000 speci- 
mens, and one of nearly 35,000 specimens brought from Venezuela 
by the curator of fishes. Rare forms accessioned include Ochmacan- 
thus reinhardti and Urinophilus erythrurus from South America. To 
the type series were added cotypes of Cynopotamus biserialis and 
paratypes of Motolepidomyzon intermedius. 

A large accession, comprising 4,300 miscellaneous insects, the bal- 
ance of the private collection of the late George P. Engelhardt, was 
received by the division of insects, accompanied by Mr. Engelhardt’s 
extensive and valuable entomological library. As in former years, the 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine and its Division of 
Foreign Plant Quarantines, of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, transferred to the Museum collection a large number 
of insects, this year the total being approximately 46,000 specimens. 
Six specimens of Cycloscosmia truncata, the third known occurrence 
of this trap-door spider since it was discovered a century ago, came 
as a gift. 

To the type collection of marine invertebrates were added the 
cotype of Derocheilocaris typicus, upon which a new genus, new 
family, and new order of crustaceans were based, and numerous 
allotypes, holotypes, and paratypes of crayfishes, worms, ostracods, 
and amphibians. A collection of approximately 700 specimens of 
miscellaneous invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico was received 
by transfer. 

One of the important mollusk collections of North America, com- 
prising approximately 10,000 specimens, was bequeathed to the 
Museum by Dr. Frank C. Baker, together with 17 bound volumes of 
his own published writings. Of special interest was a donation of 
1,500 shells, 50 corals, and a collection of echinoderms from New 
Caledonia, the first material of consequence received in many years 
from this now important part of the world. 

Twelve of the seventeen accessions to the collection of helminths 
contained type material: Types of Opecoelina pharynmagna, Proto- 
strongylus agerteri, P. frosti, Protogynella blarinae, and Diorchis 
reynoldsi; cotypes of Parallintoshius tadaridae and Euparyphium 
ochoterenai; paratypes, holotypes, and allotypes of Halocercus kirby, 
Corynosoma obtuscens, and species of Acanthocephala; slides bearing 
cotype specimens of Hymenolepis parvisaccata; and additional slides 
representing four new species. 

Several large collections of plants, mostly from Mexico, Central 
America, and South America, were received as gifts or in exchange. 


REPORT OF THD SECRETARY 17 


Eight of these collections comprised more than 1,000 specimens each. 

Geology.—Ten accessions pertaining to minerals—a 1,842-gram in- 
dividual of the Harrisonville, Mo., meteorite, and nine ae of meteor- 
ites—were added by purchase cavanel the income from the Roebling 
fund. The largest single accession of minerals was the gift of the 
John W. Langsdale collection, including many good examples from 
old American and European localities. The outstanding addition to 
the gem collection was the 316-carat star sapphire known as Star of 
Artaban. This beautiful stone ranks with the finest of the Museum’s 
individual gems. Another notable gem stone was a 54-carat blue 
Brazilian topaz obtained through the Frances Lea Chamberlain fund. 
Dr. Stuart H. Perry, associate in mineralogy, presented an album of 
five volumes containing approximately 1,500 photomicrographs of the 
structure in meteoric irons, which, with the negatives received from 
Dr. Perry last year, has resulted in the most complete file of the metal- 
lurgy of meteoric irons in existence. Dr. Perry also donated a 4,640- 
gram specimen of the Modoc, Kans., meteorite. 

The most important additions to the collections of invertebrate pale- 
ontology and paleobotany were the Devonian invertebrates collected 
in the Mississippi Valley States by Prof. A. S. Warthin, Jr., and 
Dr. G. A. Cooper. In return for assistance by Dr. C. E. Resser, 
Dr. Franco Rasetti, of Laval University, presented a splendid set of 
fossils and casts of types from the classic locality at Levis, opposite 
Quebec City, Canada. The income from the Springer fund provided 
12 Devonian crinoids from Ontario, one of the most important ac- 
cessions of the year to the collection of fossil echinoderms. A col- 
lection of about 2,000 Triassic fossils from Nevada will undoubtedly 
include many types when the study of these fossils has been completed. 
Among the accessions recorded in the section of Cenozoic inverte- 
brates were topotypes of the foraminifer Pseudophragmina (Porporo- 
cyclina) peruviana and holotype and paratypes of the foraminifer 
Paranonion venezuelanum. 

In the division of vertebrate paleontology a large series of speci- 
mens from the Oligocene beds of Niobrara County, Wyo., was acces- 
sioned. Specimens worthy of special mention are nearly complete 
articulate skeletons of various mammals known as Merycoidodon, 
Leptomeryx, Pseudocynodictis, Deinictis, and Hoplophoneus. Good 
series of skulls and partial skeletons of the fossil horse Mesohippus, 
the small camel Poébrotherium, the early rhinoceros Hyracodon, the 
squirrel Jschromys, and the rabbit Palaeolagus were included. Also 
added to the collection by exchange were the nearly complete skele- 
ton of the primitive deer Hypertragulus calcaratus Cope, to be mounted 
for the exhibition series; a skull and lower jaws of the Miocene horse 
Parahippus leonensis and a right ramus of P. blackbergi, the type of 


18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


a fossil bird Geochen rhuax Wetmore; and 297 teeth of the pavement- 
toothed shark Ptychodus mortoni. 

Engineering and industries—From the viewpoint of engineering 
history, the most interesting and valuable accession was an original 
truss of an iron railroad bridge designed, constructed, and erected 
by the Reading Railroad Co. in 1845. The specimen, approximately 
34 feet long, is the only remaining part of the first iron-truss, double- 
track railroad bridge built in America, also believed to be the first 
iron-truss bridge erected in the United States. 

Early in the present war there was instituted as part of the train- 
ing program of our armed forces the use of accurately made scale 
models of the types of airplanes used by the United Nations and 
the Axis, to teach recognition at sight of both friend and enemy. Lt. 
Paul E. Garber, U. S. Navy, on military furlough from the Museum, 
was actively engaged in the development of this program, and through 
him the Museum received two groups of these models. Bequeathed 
to the extensive propeller collection by the inventor, Dr. S. Albert 
Reed, was a full-sized model, known as the D-1, of an aluminum- 
alloy propeller that is now recognized as one of the early successful 
types. Another accession of historical interest, likewise presented 
by the inventor, H. H. Franklin, was comprised of four die castings, 
which are excellent examples of early attempts to produce finished 
castings in metal dies. Of current interest is the accession of a scale 
model of a plant used for producing high-grade motor fuel for aviation 
gasoline blending stock. An exhibit of timely educational value in 
the section of mineral technology is one of abrasives and grinding- 
machine operations. This exhibit, which has been studied frequently 
by the personnel of Government war agencies, has been modernized 
during the year, and 178 specimens were added. 

In the division of crafts and industries there were received several 
specimens of special interest because of their bearing on the war: 
A new surgical stitching instrument operated as a sewing-machine at- 
tachment, together with a felt sampler showing numerous types of 
surgical suturing; a sample of cap ribbon of a new type adopted by the 
United States Navy, in which letters in gold leaf are fused into a cut 
ribbon of acetate rayon, instead of the silk ribbon embroidered with 
gold thread formerly used; specimens of nylon and cotton woven 
webbing used for the harness connecting the aviator to his parachute; 
and new specimens to be used as an exhibit of alternates and sub- 
stitutes developed recently to cope with shortages of war materials. 
Of special interest in the public-health collections was the addition of 
a collection of food models arranged to show the daily food require- 
ment. Important additions to the wood collection were 13 samples 
of tropical American woods that had been received by the Bureau of 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 19 


Ships, Navy Department, for testing in some phase of their wartime 
shipbuilding program. 

In the division of graphic arts a large collection of war posters 
constitutes a valuable addition to the pictorial and historical record of 
our participation in the war. Many were designed by outstanding 
American artists, a fact that enhances their purely historical value. 

The most important accession received by the section of photog- 
raphy was a Woodward Solar Camera. No other example is known 
to exist, and it came to light largely as a result of the Nation-wide 
drive for scrap metal. This type of camera was manufactured under 
patents dated between 1857 and 1877, and it was the first means 
available to commercial photographers during the latter half of the 
nineteenth century for making photographic enlargements on the 
then slow bromide paper, using the sun as a source of illumination. 

History.—The three most important accessions of the year in the 
division of history were in the fields of art, arms, and numismatics. 
The first of these, received by bequest, consisted of five paintings of 
unusual interest not only because of their artistic and historical value 
but also because they complete the collection of paintings on historical 
subjects by J. L. G. Ferris, 71 of which were presented by Mrs. Ferris 
in 1932, after the death of her husband. The finest accession of fire- 
arms, swords, and daggers received by the National Museum in recent 
years came as a gift from Ralph G. Packard. The collection illus- 
trates the evolution of firearms from the matchlock to the automatic 
of the present day and includes all the methods of ignition used 
during the past 350 years. The accession of most importance to the 
numismatic section was the large collection of coins, medals, medalets, 
and tokens presented by the Hon. Frederic A. Delano, a regent of the 
Smithsonian Institution. 

Additions to the stamp collection of unusual interest were stamps 
of Great Britain overprinted “M. E. F.” (Middle East Force) for 
use in the former Italian territory of Eritrea, and stamps issued by 
the Norwegian Government in London (used on letters carried by 
Norwegian warships and merchant vessels), and by the exiled Yugo- 
slavian Government in England. 


EXPLORATIONS AND FIELD WORK 


Field explorations for the year were concerned in the main with 
matters connected with the conduct of the war or with commitments 
dating back to the pre-war period. With the usual program cur- 
tailed, the scope of the investigations has been changed, though 
valuable results in a variety of directions have been achieved. 

Anthropology.—Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, associate curator, division 
of archeology, was detailed to the Bureau of American Ethnology 


20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


from January 16, 1943, to June 1, 1943, in order to assist M. W. Stir- 
ling, Chief of the Bureau, in archeological excavations near La Venta, 
in the State of Tabasco, Mexico. These excavations, constituting an 
important program of research among the Pan American republics, 
were sponsored jointly by the Smithsonian Institution and the Na- 
tional Geographic Society. 

Biology.—In pursuance of the program for the furtherance of 
cultural relations with scientists in the other American republics in 
cooperation with the Department of State, three members of the 
department of biology—Dr. Remington Kellogg, curator of mammals, 
Ellsworth P. Killip, associate curator of plants, and Dr. Waldo L. 
Schmitt, curator of marine invertebrates—visited South America for 
periods of approximately 3 months each. 

Dr. Kellogg left Washington on March 2 for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 
and returned May 15, 1948. He spent most of his time working in 
collaboration with members of the staff at the Museu Nacional at 
Rio de Janeiro, with additional contacts at the Departamento de 
Zoologia at Sio Paulo and the Museu Goeldi at Belém. The work of 
field stations and laboratories engaged in the study and control of 
tropical diseases was observed, particular attention being given to 
research work involving Brazilian mammals suspected of being, or 
known to be, the hosts of vectors of transmissible diseases. Through 
the friendly cooperation of the Fundacio Rockefeller, Dr. Kellogg 
was enabled to spend a week at its yellow-fever field station near 
Therezopolis in the Serra das Orgios. 

Mr. Killip was occupied during March, April, and most of May in 
Venezuela. Part of the time was given to field work and part to work 
with Dr. Henri Pittier, director of the Servicio Botdnico, and his 
associates, in the identification of large collections recently made in 
little-known parts of the Republic. Short collecting trips were made 
to Santa Lucia in the State of Miranda, Rancho Grande in the Parque 
Nacional, Barquisimeto in the State of Lara, and El Junquito in the 
mountains near Caracas. At the invitation of O. E. Nelson, in charge 
of the Venezuelan office of the Rubber Reserve Corporation, Mr. Kil- 
lip accompanied a rubber-investigation party to the Rio Paragua, a 
river rising in the Pacaraima Mountains. Most of the plant collecting 
was done between the town of La Paragua and the Cerro Guaiquinima, 
a region that had never before been explored botanically. 

Dr. Schmitt left Miami, Fla., on April 18 for Brazil, Uruguay, and 
Argentina, and returned to Washington on June 30, 1943. He con- 
sulted with members of the staffs of various scientific institutions and 
spent some time examining collections, particularly of fresh-water 
crustaceans, some of which have considerable economic importance. 
In Brazil he visited the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, the Univer- 


REPORT OF THD SECRETARY oN 


sity of Sio Paulo and the Departamento de Zoologia at Sio Paulo, and 
the Museu Paranaense in Curityba. In Uruguay he studied at the 
Museo Nacional, the Museo Instituto Geoldgico del Uruguay, the Museo 
de Pedagégico and the Museo de Ensefiaza Secundaria de Univer- 
sidad, all in Montevideo, and the museum of the Liceo in Paysanda. 
In Argentina he examined collections and visited the staff of the 
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales and the University at Buenos 
Aires, the La Plata Museum at La Plata, the Museo Cornelio Moyano 
and the Universidad de Cuyo, both at Mendoza, the Universidad de 
Cérdoba at Cérdoba, and the Universidad de Tucuman at Tucumin. 
The director and staff members of the laboratories of the Direccién 
Regional de Paludismo assisted him on numerous occasions through- 
out northern Argentina, particularly in Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy. 
His field work, accomplished when time and other obligations per- 
mitted, included studies in Brazil at Alto da Serra, Sao Paulo, and at 
several localities in the vicinity of Curityba, Parana, in Uruguay at 
Paso de los Toros, Salto, and Paysandu, and in Argentina at Mendoza, 
Tucuman, Salta, San Lorenzo, and Quijano. 

Philip Hershkovitz, who before the outbreak of the war had started 
his investigations on the mammalian fauna of the northeastern part 
of Colombia under the Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholar- 
ship, between June 30, 1942, and April 16, 1943, worked mainly in the 
Department of Magdalena, Colombia. More recently Mr. Hershko- 
vitz has moved camp to the Department of Bolivar. 

M. A. Carriker, Jr., under the W. L. Abbott fund of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, continued work on the Colombian avifauna in 
northeastern Colombia, and Walter A. Weber, also traveling under 
the Abbott fund, accompanied the archeological expedition sponsored 
Jointly by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic 
Society to Tabasco, Mexico, during which expedition he obtained 
about 600 specimens of birds for the Museum collections. Mr. Weber 
also visited the Instituto de Biologia at Mexico City. 

Geology.—While field work for upbuilding the exhibits has been 
curtailed, researches in general geology were increased. Late in July 
Prof. A. S. Warthin, Jr., and Dr. G. A. Cooper left for a survey of 
Devonian rocks in Illinois and adjacent States. The purpose of the 
trip was to correlate isolated areas of Devonian exposures in Illincis 
with the better-known sequences in Missouri and Iowa, and for the 
first time such correlations were established in that promising area 
for new oil fields. After the return of Dr. Warthin, Dr. Cooper went 
to southeastern Missouri to report on a deposit from which several 
bones of a dinosaur had been taken. 

Later in the year, under the cooperative work between the Depart- 
ment of State and the Smithsonian Institution, and as the result of a 

566766—44—3 


22 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


special request by Ing. Luis Flores C., of the Instituto Geoldégico de 
México in Mexico City, Dr. Cooper was detailed to make an economic 
survey in Mexico. This field work, which was in connection with 
search for war minerals, resulted in the discovery of a long sequence 
of Cambrian rocks associated with ore deposits. 

Dr. W. F. Foshag, on detail from the Museum, spent the entire year 
in continuation of his work in Mexico supervising surveys for stra- 
tegic minerals for the United States Geological Survey. 

Only brief mention was made in last year’s report of the field ex- 
pedition of the Smithsonian Institution to Wyoming under the direc- 
tion of C. W. Gilmore, since it extended well into the present fiscal 
year. Accompanied by George F. Sternberg, George B. Pearce, and 
Alfonso Segura, of the Museo Nacional in San José, Costa Rica, the 
party spent 24% months in a systematic search of the Hat Creek 
Basin area, Niobrara County, Wyo., for Oligocene vertebrate fossils. 
This work resulted in assembling a collection which, when combined 
with the specimens obtained in 1932, gives the Museum for the first 
time an adequate representation of this important fauna. 


MISCELLANEOUS 


Visitors—Curtailment of train and bus travel and the rationing 
of gasoline resulted in a further reduction in the number of visitors 
at the various Museum buildings. The total recorded during the 
year was 1,355,269, as against 2,042,817 for the previous year. The 
largest attendance for a single month was in August 1942, with 163,413 
visitors, and the second largest was in July 1942, with 136,111. The 
attendance in the four Smithsonian and Museum buildings was as 
follows: Smithsonian building, 264,117; Arts and Industries build- 
ing, 516,910; Natural History building, 424,055; Aircraft building, 
150,187. 

From November 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943, a separate count was 
made of members of the armed forces who visited the buildings dur- 
ing the first 7 days of each month. This count served to show that 
attendance by servicemen averaged 25 to 35 percent of the total 
number of visitors. 

Publications and printing.—The sum of $27,750 was available dur- 
ing the fiscal year for the publication of the Annual Report, Bulletins, 
and Proceedings of the National Museum. Publications issued num- 
bered 30—the Annual Report, 8 Bulletins, 1 Contribution from the 
National Herbarium, and 25 Proceedings papers. <A list of these pub- 
lications is given in the report on publications, appendix 10. 

Volumes and separates distributed during the year to libraries, 
institutions, and individuals throughout the world aggregated 55,631 
copies. 


REPORT OF THD SECRETARY 28 


Special exhibits.—Twelve special exhibits were held during the year 
under the auspices of various educational, scientific, recreational, and 
governmental groups. In addition the department of engineering 
and industries arranged 27 special displays—12 in graphic arts and 
15 in photography. 


CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 


To afford a more usual description of the functions of Dr. Alexander 
Wetmore’s position, on January 16, 1943, his title was changed to 
Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, Director, United States 
National Museum. 

In the department of anthropology Dr. Joseph E. Weckler, Jr., 
associate curator in the division of ethnology, resigned on January 6, 
1943. 

Following the death of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, head curator of 
the department of biology for many years, Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, 
curator of the division of marine invertebrates, was advanced to the 
position of head curator of the department on June 16, 1943. Dr. 
Doris M. Cochran’s title was changed on March 27, 1948, to associate 
curator in charge of the division of reptiles and batrachians. In the 
division of mollusks, Dr. Harald A. Rehder was reallocated to as- 
sociate curator and Dr. Joseph P. E. Morrison to assistant curator 
cn September 1, 1942. On July 1, 1942, Walter A. Weber was ap- 
pointed assistant curator on the staff of the division of birds to succeed 
S. Dillon Ripley, II. 

During the absence of Frank A. Taylor, who is now on military 
duty, the head curator of the department of engineering and in- 
dustries, Carl W. Mitman, assumed charge of the division. In the 
division of engineering Fred C. Reed was appointed acting associate 
curator on August 1, 1942, while Paul E. Garber is on military 
furlough. Other division of engineering staff appointments, to be 
effective only for the duration of the war, are: Kenneth M. Perry, 
advanced from exhibits worker to senior scientific aid, August 1, 
1942; Burlie Parks, transferred from the Museum property office to 
the position of exhibits worker formerly held by Mr. Perry. Dr. 
Wallace E. Duncan, assistant curator, section of chemical industries, 
resigned on July 31, 1942. The vacancy caused by his resignation 
was filled November 2, 1942, by the transfer of Joseph W. Schutz 
from the Social Security Board. 

An honorary appointment was conferred on Dr. Walter K. Fisher 
as associate in zoology on June 25, 1948. The honorary title of Dr. 
T. Wayland Vaughan was changed on July 28, 1942, from associate 
in marine sediments, department of biology, to associate in paleontol- 


24 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


ogy in the department of geology, to represent his existing activities 
more properly. 

Employees furloughed for military duty during the year were as 
follows: Everett A. Altizer, on July 6, 1942; Paul E. Garber, on 
July 6, 1942; Samuel T. Fetterman, on July 20, 1942; Dr. Charles L. 
Gazin, on July 20, 1942; Preston L. Travers, on July 22, 1942; John 
L. Theunissen, on August 24, 1942; Ernest Desantis, on September 
30, 1942; John B. J. Peck, on September 30, 1942; Glen P. Shephard, 
on October 15, 1942; Dr. Marshall T. Newman, on December 3, 1942; 
Harold W. McGiverin, on December 11, 1942; and Frank T. Taylor, 
on April 14, 1943. Furloughed for duty in private industry: Ed- 
ward Zuranski, on January 28, 1943, and Charles F. Huselstein, on 
May 28, 1943. 

Through the operation of the retirement act, Joseph H. Boswell, 
principal guard (sergeant), on June 30, 1943, retired at his own 
option with 17 years of government service. 

The year was marked by the death of several staff members long 
connected with the Museum. The death of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger 
on February 28, 1948, has deprived the Museum of one of its most 
widely known scientists. Harry S. Jones, principal mechanic, fore- 
man of electricians, died suddenly September 11, 1942; John D. Ray, 
junior laborer, died October 28, 1942; and Jennie T. Jackson, char- 
woman, on August 29, 1942. In addition to these the honorary staff 
lost Dr. Samuel W. Woodhouse, collaborator, section of ceramics, 
department of anthropology, by death on February 2, 1943, and Dr. 
Mary J. Rathbun, associate in zoology, department of biology, whose 
death occurred on April 4, 1943. 

Respectfully submitted. 

ALEXANDER Wetmore, Assistant Secretary, 
Director, U. S. National Museum. 
Dr. C. G. Axsor, 


Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 2 
REPORT ON THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 


Sir: I have the honor to submit, on behalf of the Board of Trustees 
of the National Gallery of Art, the sixth annual report of the Board 
covering its operations for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943. This 
report is made pursuant to the provisions of the act of March 24, 
1937 (50 Stat. 51), as amended by the public resolution of April 13, 
1939 (Pub. Res. No. 9, 76th Cong.). 


ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 


During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943, the Board was com- 
prised of the Chief Justice of the United States, Harlan F. Stone; 
the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull; the Secretary of the Treasury, 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr.; and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, Dr. C. G. Abbot, ex officio; and five general trustees, David 
K. E. Bruce, Duncan Phillips, Ferdinand Lammot Belin, Joseph E. 
Widener, and Samuel H. Kress, 

At its annual meeting held February 8, 1943, the Board reelected 
David K. E. Bruce, President, and Ferdinand Lammot Belin, Vice 
President, of the Board, to serve the ensuing year. The executive 
officers continuing in office during the year were Huntington Cairns, 
who succeeded Donald D. Shepard, resigned, as Secretary-Treasurer 
and General Counsel, and took office on January 13, 1948; David E. 
Finley, Director; Harry A. McBride, Administrator; John Walker, 
Chief Curator; and Macgill James, Assistant Director. During the 
year Donald D. Shepard was appointed Adviser to the Board; 
Elizabeth Mongan was appointed Curator of Painting, Decorative and 
Graphic Arts; and David Keppel was appointed Associate Curator 
of Prints. 

The three standing committees of the Board, provided for in the 
bylaws, as constituted at the annual meeting of the Board, held Febru- 
ary 8, 1943, were: 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEB 


Chief Justice of the United States, Harlan F. Stone, chairman 
David K. E. Bruce, vice chairman 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. C. G. Abbot 
Ferdinand Lammot Belin 
Duncan Phillips 
25 


26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


FINANCE COMMITTEE 


Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., chairman 
David K. E. Bruce, vice chairman 
Secretary of State, Cordell Hull 
Ferdinand Lammot Belin 
Samuel H. Kress 
ACQUISITIONS COMMITTEE 


David K. E. Bruce, chairman 
Ferdinand Lammot Belin, vice chairman 
Dunean Phillips 
Joseph E. Widener 
David HE. Finley, ex officio 

All positions with the Gallery (with the exception of the executive 
and honorary officers) are filled from the registers of the United States 
Civil Service Commission or with its approval. By June 380, 1943, the 
permanent Civil Service staff numbered 232 employees. Since the 
opening of hostilities, 41 members of the staff, or approximately 18 
percent, have joined the armed forces. 


APPROPRIATIONS 


For salaries and expenses, for the upkeep and operation of the 
National Gallery of Art, the protection and care of the works of art 
acquired by the Board, and all administrative expenses incident 
thereto, as authorized by the Act of March 24, 1937 (50 Stat. 51), as 
amended by the public resolution of April 18, 1989 (Pub. Res. No. 
9, 76th Cong.), the Congress appropriated for the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1943, the sum of $563,825.00. This amount includes regular 
appropriations of $541,365.00 and a supplemental deficiency appro- 
priation for the payment of “overtime compensation” authorized by 
the Acts of Congress in the amount of $22,460.00. From this appro- 
priation the following expenditures and encumbrances were made: 


EXPENDITURES AND HNCUMBRANCES 


Personaliservicesi= = oka ae ee De ee $449, 825. 00 
Pricing Vay iiss es ed eee ee eS 3, 506. 88 
Suppliesiand! equipment. etc: 2 2se a= a ee 108, 758. 15 
Wnencumbered) Ghalances cee ee ea 1, 734. 97 

TOGA) es Eh A ee a $568, 825. 00 


In addition to the above-mentioned appropriations aggregating 
$563,825.00, the Gallery received $32,264.58 from the Federal Works 
Agency, Public Buildings Administration, to cover expenses incurred 
in connection with the special protection of masterpieces of painting 
and sculpture which have been evacuated from the Gallery. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 27 


ATTENDANCE 


The total attendance from July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1948, was 
1,508,081, a daily average of 4,132 visitors, over 25 percent of this 
number being men and women in the uniformed military services. 
In spite of war conditions the number of visitors at the National 
Gallery of Art has been increasing. The first 6 months of the calendar 
year 1943 the attendance was 876,460, as compared with 577,360 during 
the first 6 months of 1942, while the attendance during June—the 
last month of the fiscal year—was 164,202 in 1943, compared with 
91,810 in 1949. 

Among the activities contributing to the consistent growth of popu- 
larity of the Gallery are the Sunday night openings, the special exhi- 
bitions of contemporary art, the variety and excellence of the Sunday 
evening musical concerts, the Sunday night suppers for servicemen, 
and the Servicemen’s Room, which has furnished a place of relaxation 
for many men in the military services who, especially on week ends, 
visit the Gallery. 

PUBLICATIONS 


In the information rooms in the Gallery building, the Gallery con- 
tinues to pursue and expand its policy of making catalogs, color repro- 
ductions, and similar publications available to the public at moderate 
cost. There is also available, without charge, a general information 
booklet containing a short account of the history of painting and 
sculpture from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries, as illustrated 
by the Gallery’s collections, and clearly marked floor plans to guide 
visitors in their study of the various exhibits. The booklet is of great 
assistance to visitors and may be obtained at the information rooms 
on request. 


AIR-RAID PROTECTION 


The Gallery staff, which is organized to form five air-raid services, 
namely, fire, police (including morale), health (first aid), mainte- 
nance, and evacuation, has been kept in constant training through the 
medium of weekly building air-raid drills. Drills held in coordination 
with the District of Columbia authorities, when visitors were in the 
building, gave evidence of the measure of efficiency which has been 
reached by the protective organization in the Gallery. 


ACQUISITIONS 
GIFTS OF PRINTS 


On December 29, 1942, the Board of Trustees accepted from Mr. 
and Mrs. J. Watson Webb two sets of etchings by James Abbott 


28 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


McNeill Whistler, and on February 8, 1948, the Board accepted from 
Mrs. J. Watson Webb an engraving of St. Jerome by Albrecht Durer; 
on March 15, 1943, the Board accepted from Lessing J. Rosenwald, a 
gift of his collection of prints and drawings, consisting of some 6,500 
items; on April 12, 1943, the Board accepted from Mrs. George Nichols 
a gift of four prints; and on June 7, 1943, the Board accepted from 
David Keppel a gift of a set of Vedute by Piranesi. 


GIFTS OF PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE 


On August 1, 1942, the Board of Trustees accepted from The A. W. 
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust a gift of 62 paintings, 2 en- 
gravings, and a bronze bust of the late Andrew W. Mellon, by Jo 
Davidson; on September 3, 1942, the Board accepted from the Honor- 
able Frederic A. Delano a gift of a portrait of “Captain Warren 
Delano” by Charles Loring Elliott; on December 1, 1942, the Board 
accepted from Mrs. Jesse Isidor Straus a gift of a terra-cotta group, 
“La Surprise,” signed by Clodion; also on December 1, 1942, the 
Board accepted from Clarence Van Dyke Tiers two paintings, “Henry 
Pratt” by Thomas Sully, and the “Duke of Portland” by Matthew 
Pratt. On December 1, 1942, the Board accepted from Mrs. Robert 
Noyes a bequest of a portrait by Gilbert Stuart of “William Rickart.” 
On February 8, 1943, and on June 7, 1948, the Board of Trustees 
accepted from Chester Dale gifts of 23 paintings. On June 7, 1948, 
the Board accepted from Miss Ethlyn McKinney a gift of a painting 
by Childe Hassam, entitled “Allies Day, May 1917”; also on June 7, 
1943, the Board accepted from J. H. Whittemore Company a gift 
of two paintings, “The White Girl” and “L’Andalouse,” both by 
Whistler. 

On June 7, 1948, the Board of Trustees accepted from the Works 
Progress Administration a donation of the Index of American Design 
consisting of 22,000 or more documented drawings and water colors 
made under the auspices of the United States Government as a pic- 
torial record of American source material in design and craftsmanship 
from early Colonial days to the close of the nineteenth century. 

Another notable gift was that of Joseph E. Widener, given to the 
Gallery in memory of his father, the late Peter A. B. Widener. This 
gift was made on September 9, 1942, and consisted of a collection of 
paintings, sculpture, tapestries, jewels, furniture, ceramics and other 
objects of art. In this collection the National Gallery of Art has 
received one of the greatest donations ever made to any museum, The 
Widener collection was begun many years ago by Peter A. B. Widener, 
who died in 1915. After his father’s death, Joseph Widener continued 
te build up the collection, and in his choice revealed a faultless dis- 
crimination. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 29 


On March 18, 1948, the National Gallery of Art announced the gift 
of the famous collection of prints of Lessing J. Rosenwald. The col- 
lection consists of over 6,500 items, including representative examples 
of print-making from the fifteenth century to the present, a number 
of drawings, original wood blocks and copper plates, letters and valu- 
able reference books relating to the history of engraving. The collec- 
tion was carefully built up by Mr. Rosenwald during the last 20 years. 
Because of his extraordinary knowledge and discrimination, he has 
brought together one of the greatest collections of the graphic arts 
ever assembled by a private individual. 


LOAN OF WORKS OF ART RETURNED 


During the year the following works of art which hud been placed 
on loan at the Gallery were returned: 

To Dr. A. C. Miller the seven paintings loaned by him to the Gallery 
and listed in this report under the heading “Loans of Works of Art to 
the Gallery.” 


LOAN OF WORKS OF ART BY THE GALLERY 


During the year 13 architectural drawings of the National Gallery 
building by the late John Russell Pope were placed on loan with the 
National Academy of Design, New York, N. Y. 


EXHIBITIONS 


The following exhibitions were held at the National Gallery of 
Art during the last year: 

An exhibition of bronze busts of South American Presidents was 
shown in the West Garden Court of the Gallery from June 27 
through July 19, 1942. The countries represented were Chile, Ecua- 
dor, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colom- 
bia, and Brazil. 

Sponsored by Life magazine, an exhibition of 118 paintings of 
military life and activities done in oils, water colors, and charcoal 
by artists serving in the United States armed forces was shown in the 
Gallery from July 5 through August 2, 1942. 

A group of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century prints from the 
Gallery’s own collection was exhibited from August 7 through Sep- 
tember 29, 1942. 

An exhibition of Chilean Contemporary Art consisting of 150 oil 
paintings, water colors, drawings, and prints selected from the great 
Chilean Exhibition assembled by the University of Chile during the 
observance of the 400th anniversary of Santiago, Chile’s capital, was 
shown in the Gallery from October 10 through November 8, 1942. 


30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


An exhibition of 850 war posters sponsored by Artists for Victory, 
Inc., was shown in the Gallery from January 9 through February 
19, 1943. 

An exhibition of drawings and water colors on loan from French 
museums and others was held in the Gallery from February 28 
through March 28, 1943. An exhibition of Whistler etchings, the 
gift of Mrs. J. Watson Webb, was shown in the Gallery from February 
' 28 through March 28, 1948. 

The Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Exhibition, commemorating 
the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth, was held at the National 
Gallery of Art from April 13 through May 15, 1943. Displayed were 
numerous portraits of Thomas Jefferson, as he appeared to his con- 
temporaries during his long and varied career. A unique set of por- 
traits of the first five Presidents, painted by Gilbert Stuart, formed 
an important group. There were also portraits of Jefferson’s friends 
and contemporaries, including Houdon, the celebrated French sculp- 
tor, and Gilbert Stuart. Included in the exhibition were architectural 
drawings of buildings Jefferson designed, among them Monticello, 
the Virginia Capitol at Richmond, and the University of Virginia. 

An exhibition of American paintings, gifts from The A. W. Mellon 
Educational and Charitable Trust, Chester Dale, and Clarence Van 
Dyke Tiers, was held in the Gallery from May 25 through June 18, 1943. 

Life magazine also sponsored an exhibition of 125 paintings made 
by leading American artists in cooperation with the War Department, 
in United States battle zones, which was shown in the Gallery from 
June 20 through July 20, 1948. An exhibition of prints, water colors, 
and books by William Blake, from the Lessing J. Rosenwald collec- 
tion, was opened to the public on Easter Sunday, April 25, 1943, and 
has been on exhibition in the Gallery since that date. 


SALE OR EXCHANGE OF WORKS OF ART 


During the year no works of art belonging to the Gallery were sold 
or exchanged. 


LOANS OF WORKS OF ART TO THE GALLERY 
During the year the following works of art were received on loan: 


From the Belgian Government : 


Title Artist 
at OUISINTOT OM aes es ees et eee ey spk URE es Bee Se Sees Aertsen, Pieter 
Tes I@aliveative tthe s. Sits Rh i eee ee iee Wee ATA Die SY Bles, Herri met de 
NatureriMortess2. 3) ee ee aed ee eee Brueghel, Jan, the elder 
Lay Parabole sd Semeur see eee ee eee Brueghel, Pieter, the elder 


La Vierge’2 la Soupeyau: lait .- =. eee eee David, Gerard 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 31 


Title Artist 
Spear aN NA) OS oS IS Ps i ee a Goes, H. van der 
Saint) Ives! Patron) des Avocatsie2 a2 —2 2 eee Jordaens, Jacob 
La’ Martyre’ de Saint: Sebastien_..---_ 22 Memling, Hans 
RaGirait) Gee Oommen 6 ae ee eee Mostaert, Jan 
Portrait de Georges de Zelle, Medecin________-_- Orley, B. van 


La Sagesse Victorieuse de la Guerre et de la 
Discorde, sous le Gouvernement de Jacques I 


eA LECOrTe Het see iA ie ee ee ee Rubens, Peter Paul 
amVietee- ai My OSOtIS-2 = seta ee ca ha Se Rubens, Peter Paul 
EaLvGuirlande. desisilenurs 222. ee = 2 ae Seghers, Daniel 
AmOllon etwles: MUSCS@= 228s eae ee Vos, Martin de 


From Chester Dale, New York, N. Y.: 


Art reference library, large rug, and desk 


From National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D. C.: 
Oil painting, High Cliff, Coast of Maine, by Winslow Homer 


From Dr. A. C. Miller, Washington, D. C. 


Title Artist 
WGK Korahate yc ware {ON anu To [eee PA Ree ae ea Lueas Cranach, the elder 
POGERA TRO tas Mire re a ee Sir Anthony Van Dyck 
Portraiiot ca Mamie ee a Suan Ambrosius Benson 
POL (Ob ete WV OUND ccc re ae ie Ambrosius Benson 
POLtraie wots a) Hylan ee ewe NE EAR Barthel Bruyn, the elder 
Portrait of a Man on Parechment____--.- Peter Gertner 
Portrait of a Woman on Parchment___. Peter Gertner 


From John S. Broome, Washington, D. C.: 
Oil painting, Lost on the Grand Banks, by Winslow Homer 


VARIOUS GALLERY ACTIVITIES 


The Sunday evening concerts, which were instituted on June 7, 
1942, primarily for the benefit of service men and women and war 
workers in the city, have been so successful that they have been con- 
tinued. The exhibition galleries have been open from 2:00 to 10:00 
p.m. each Sunday evening throughout the year. Concerts of orchestral 
music and string quartets have been provided with funds donated 
by Chester Dale, and by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Chari- 
table Trust, and later from the Gallery’s trust fund received from 
The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. In addition, 
concerts have been donated by such well-known artists as Albert 
Spalding, violinist, Frances Nash, pianist, and by artists in the 
armed forces attached to the Navy School of Music, the Army Music 
School, the Army Air Forces Band. The Ballet Russe de Monte 
Carlo contributed a performance in the East Garden Court on May 
2, 1943, especially for the wounded servicemen from the local hospitals. 


32 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT 


The curatorial work for the year consisted of the installation of 
over 600 works of art from the Widener collection, and of 173 other 
gifts, and of 18 temporary exhibitions; in giving various lectures 
on the collections and related fields in conjunction with the program 
of the educational department; and in further cataloging the works 
of art. A check list of the works of art in the Widener collection, 
with an introduction, was compiled and printed, and a new general 
information pamphlet was devised and printed for free distribution 
to visitors at the Gallery. 

During the past year the staffs of the curatorial and the educational 
departments have collaborated in issuing a catalog, a portfolio of 
colored reproductions, and nine pamphlets dealing with the Gallery 
and its collections. Six members of the staff have contributed twelve 
articles to several periodicals and pamphlet series. Two books and 
several articles are currently in preparation. 

In the course of the year, approximately 9,420 works of art were 
submitted to the acquisitions committee (including 1,945 prints from 
the Widener collection and approximately 6,500 from the Rosenwald 
collection) with recommendations regarding their acceptability for 
the collections of the National Gallery of Art; 21 private collections 
were visited in connection with offers to the Gallery of gifts or loans; 
126 consultations were held concerning over 250 works of art brought 
to the Gallery for expert opinion; 11 visits were made outside the 
Gallery to give expert opinion; and 32 letters were written in answer 
to inquiries involving research in the history of art. 


RESTORATION AND REPAIR OF WORKS OF ART 


During the year, as authorized by the Board and with the approval 
of the Director and Chief Curator, Stephen Pichetto, Consultant 
Restorer to the Gallery, together with his staff, has undertaken such 
restoration and repair of paintings and sculpture in the collection 
as has been found to be necessary. AII this work was carried on 
in the restorer’s rooms in the Gallery except in one case, when an 
unusually delicate and complicated restoration was required; this 
painting is being restored in Mr. Pichetto’s studios in New York. 


WORKS OF ART STORED IN A PLACE OF SAFEKEEPING 


Early in January 1942, a limited number of fragile and irreplace- 
able works of art in the Gallery collections were removed to a place 
of greater safety. These works, stored in a place adapted for the 
purpose, have since been under constant guard by members of the 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 33 


Gallery’s guard force and under supervision and inspection by a 
member of the curatorial staff of the Gallery. 


EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 


The attendance (97,000) for the educational program was double 
that of the previous year (47,000). 

The Gallery tours of the collection, conducted twice daily, Mon- 
day through Friday, and once on Saturday, have been supplemented 
by tours for service men and women on Saturdays. In addition 
to these tours, slide lectures on the collection, given by members of 
the curatorial and educational departments, were continued, and 
more than 22,000 persons attended the consistently popular feature, 
the “Picture of the Week,” a 10-minute discussion of single paintings. 

New features introduced by the department during the past year 
included film lectures, music lectures, and noon-hour concerts of re- 
corded music, all of which have been well attended. 

Changes in personnel due to wartime conditions placed unusual 
responsibilities and added work on the members of the department 
and because of this increased pressure it was not possible for the edu- 
cational staff to assume extra assignments. The following projects, 
however, were completed: cataloging the collection of approximately 
8,500 slides; preparation of manuscripts for lectures on the Gallery 
for the Federation of Women’s Clubs; slide lecture on the Gallery, 
for circulation by the American Federation of Arts; various articles 
for publication in art magazines; and the planning and supervision 
of the motion picture on the National Gallery of Art. This motion 
picture was completed in June 1943, by the Gallery staff in coopera- 
tion with the Office of Strategic Services. Accompanied by a special 
musical score and commentary, the film includes views of the ex- 
terior and interior of the building, air-conditioning and lighting 
equipment, and a color sequence showing many of the outstanding 
works of art on exhibition. It is expected that the film will be 
widely circulated among educational institutions and the general 
public in this country and abroad. 


LIBRARY 


A total of 746 books and 106 pamphlets and periodicals were pre- 
sented to the Gallery; 33 books and 110 pamphlets and periodicals 
were purchased by the Gallery; 472 photographs and drawings were 
presented as gifts; 27 books and 816 pamphlets and periodicals were 
acquired through exchange; 1 film was presented as a gift, and 22 
subscriptions to periodicals were made. 


34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


PHOTOGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT 


Prints totaling 11,401, 459 black-and-white slides, and 2,034 color 
slides have been made by the photographic laboratory. The prints 
have been placed on file in the library, where they are for sale and 
for the use of the Gallery staff. The slides have been made avail- 
able for the staff in connection with the public lectures given in the 
Gallery and have likewise been lent to lecturers outside the Gallery 
and to other galleries. 


OTHER GIFTS 


During the year there were gifts to the Gallery of plants for the 
garden courts; also certain expenses were paid by others on behalf 
of the Gallery, the donors being Mrs. William Corcoran Eustis, 
David E. Finley, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 
of Harvard University, Life magazine, The A. W. Mellon Edu- 
cational and Charitable Trust, and the Toledo Museum of Art. 
Gifts of money were made to the Gallery during the year by Mrs. 
Florence Becker, Maj. Curtis Bryan, Chester Dale, Mrs. William 
Corcoran Eustis, David E. Finley, Mrs. David E. Finley, Sr., S. R. 
Guggenheim, Samuel H. Kress and Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 
Lt. Paul Mellon, Mrs. Stephen S. Pichetto, Donald D. Shepard, 
Mrs. Gertrude Clarke Whittall, Joseph E. Widener, Avalon Founda- 
tion, and The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. 


AUDIT OF PRIVATE FUNDS OF THE GALLERY 


An audit has been made of the private funds of the Gallery for 
the year ended June 30, 1943, by Price, Waterhouse & Co., a nation- 
ally known firm of public accountants, and the certificate of that 
company on its examination of the accounting records maintained for 
such funds has been submitted to the Gallery. 

Respectfully submitted. 

F. L. Bern, Acting President. 

Dr. C. G. Assor, 


Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 3 
REPORT ON THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 


Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 
ties of the National Collection of Fine Arts for the fiscal year ended 
June 30, 19438: 


APPROPRIATIONS 


For the administration of the National Collection of Fine Arts by 
the Smithsonian Institution, including compensation of necessary 
employees, purchase of books of reference and periodicals, traveling 
expenses, uniforms for guards, and necessary incidental expenses, $31,- 
993 was appropriated, of which $20,487.44 was expended for the care 
and maintenance of the Freer Gallery of Art, a unit of the National 
Collection of Fine Arts. The balance was spent for the care and up- 
keep of the National Collection of Fine Arts, nearly all of this sum 
being required for the payment of salaries, traveling expenses, pur- 
chase of books and periodicals, and necessary disbursements for the 
care of the collection. 


THE SMITHSONIAN ART COMMISSION 


Owing to crowded transportation and hotel facilities, it was decided 
to omit the December 1942 annual meeting of the Smithsonian Art 
Commission. Several proffered gifts of art works have been deposited 
with the National Collection of Fine Arts to be passed upon at the 
next meeting of the Commission. 

The Commission lost two of its members by death during the year. 
John E. Lodge, a member of the Commission since its inception and 
chairman of the subcommittee on Oriental art, died December 29, 
1942, and Charles L. Borie, a member of the Commission since 1926 
and chairman since 1935, died May 11, 1948. 


THE CATHERINE WALDEN MYER FUND 


Fourteen miniatures, water color on ivory, were acquired from the 
fund established through the bequest of the late Catherine Walden 
Myer, as follows: | 

28. “Portrait of a Man,” by Raphael Peale (1774-1825); from Miss Dora 
Lamb, Chattanooga, Tenn. 

35 


36 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


29. “Portrait of Mr. Lewis,’ by James Peale (1749-1831); from Edmund 
Bury, Philadelphia, Pa. 

30. “Portrait of a Man,” by Walter Robertson (before 1765-1802); from 
Card & Osborne, Inec., Washington, D. C. 

31. “Emily Appleton,” by Sarah Goodridge (1788-1853) ; from Miss Bessie 
J. Howard, Boston, Mass. 

32. “Portrait of a Lady,” by an unknown artist; from Miss Bessie J. Howard, 
Boston, Mass. 

33. “Beulah Appleton,” by Sarah Goodridge (1788-1853) ; from Gimbel Bros., 
New York City. 

84. “Dr. William Beckman,” by Alexander Robertson (1772-1841); from 
Gimbel Bros., New York City. 

35. “John Trumbull Ray,” by Thomas 8. Cummings (1804-1894) ; from Gimbel — 
Bros., New York City. 

36. “Edward Appleton,” by Sarah Goodridge (1788-1853) ; from Miss Bessie 
J. Howard, Boston, Mass. 

37. “Matilda Barrington,” by Elkanah Tisdale (about 1771-after 1834) ; from 
Miss Bessie J. Howard, Boston, Mass. 

88. “Portrait of a Young Lady,” by Robert Fulton (1765-1815); from Miss 
Bessie J. Howard, Boston, Mass. 

89. “Self Portrait,” by Sarah Goodridge (1788-1853); from Miss Bessie J. 
Howard, Boston, Mass. 

40. “Mr. Hargreaves,” by Thomas Hargreaves (1775-1846); from Stephen 
K. Nagy, Philadelphia, Pa. 

41. “Portrait of M. B.,” by Philip A. Peticolas (1760-1843) ; from Mrs. Dora 
Lee Curtis, Arlington, Va. 


LOANS ACCEPTED 


An oil painting, “Maid of the Mist,” by Thomas Cole (1801-1848), 
was lent by Mrs. L. T. Gager. 

A marble bust of Hon. Charles Evans Hughes, by Bryant Baker, 
was lent by Mr. Hughes. 

The following were lent anonymously: 435 Chinese jade ornaments; 
122 Chinese jade, stone, glass, and porcelain snuff bottles; 44 Chinese 
mirrors; 1 Imperial plate, Kuang Hsu (1875-1912), dragon design 
in cobalt blue, with stand; 1 Flambé or transmutation copper glaze 
bowl, Yung Chéng or Ch’ien Lung, eighteenth century, with stand; 
1 Imperial bowl, K’ang Hsi (1662-1722), phoenix and dragon design, 
blue, white, and peachblow, and 1 Imperial tea bowl, K’ang Hsi (1662- 
1722), Imperial yellow with dragons in green and aubergine. 


LOANS TO OTHER MUSEUMS AND ORGANIZATIONS 


An oil portrait, “Alice Barney with Jabot,” by Alice Barney, was 
lent to the Society of Washington Artists to be shown in connection 
with their exhibition held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from Janu- 
ary 23 to February 14, 1943. (Returned February 20, 1943.) 

A miniature, “Portrait of a Colonial Gentleman,” signed “Copley 
1773,” No. 20 in the Catherine Walden Myer Fund Collection, was 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 37 


lent to the Worcester Art Museum to be included in a loan exhibition 
“New England Painting, 1700-1775” held at the Worcester Art Mu- 
seum in collaboration with the American Antiquarian Society, Febru- 
ary 17 to March 31, 1948. (Returned May 8, 1943.) 

A bronze bust of Jeanne d’Arc, by Berthe Girardet, with a pedestal, 
was lent to the Hecht Co., where it was shown March 18 to 31, 1943, 
in connection with a drive for the recruiting of WAC’s. 

An oil painting, “High Cliff, Coast of Maine,” by Winslow Homer, 
was lent to the National Gallery of Art on May 15, 1943, subject to 
recall by the Smithsonian Institution at any time. 


WITHDRAWALS BY OWNERS 


Two oil paintings, “Henry, First Earl of Mulgrave,” by Sir Thomas 
Lawrence, and “Landscape with Cottage,” by Hobbema, were with- 
drawn from the Perkins Collection by their owners, Mrs. Feroline 
Wallach and Mrs. Mabel Ruggles, respectively, on July 14, 1942. 

An oil painting, “Portrait of Theophilus Parsons, First Chief Jus- 
tice of Massachusetts,” by Gilbert Stuart, was withdrawn by the owner, 
Theophilus Parsons, on October 1, 1942. 

A pair of Meissen ewers was withdrawn by the owners, Mr. and 
Mrs. J. D. Patten, on November 10, 1942. 

A miniature, “Portrait of a Boy,” by Joseph Wood, was withdrawn 
by the owner, Miss Sarah Lee, on March 23, 1943. 


THE HENRY WARD RANGER FUND PURCHASES 


The paintings purchased by the Council of the National Academy 
of Design from the fund provided by the Henry Ward Ranger bequest, 
which, under certain conditions, are prospective additions to the 
National Collection of Fine Arts, and the names of the institutions 
to which they have been assigned, are as follows: 


Date of 
Title Artist purchase Assignment 


115. Wreck at Lobster Cove_..| Andrew Winter, N. A. | April 1940_}----...--....-...-....-...--.-.. 


— 


(1893—). 
116. Farm in Winter__......-- Milton W. Holm (1903 —)__]____- doeeck Greenville Public Library, 
Greenville, 8. C. 
117. Old Chinese GQuich__-_..- Emil J. Kosa, Jr. (1903 —)_..| April 1941._]| The Montgomery Museum of 
ne Arts, Montgomery, 
118, Arrangement_..__........ Cathal B. O’Toole, A. N. A. |_----do-_-_-- The eons Public Library, 
(1903 —). Bronxville, N. Y. 
110) Furbelows-= 222-2.-2-2222 Albert Sterner, N. A. (1863 | May 1942- Ste GaReors, College, Shawnee. 


THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS REFERENCE LIBRARY 


A total of 1,103 publications (527 volumes and 576 pamphlets) were 
accessioned during the year. This number includes 258 volumes and 
566766—44—-4 


38 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


66 pamphlets added by purchase, and 77 volumes of bound periodicals. 
The Parke-Bernet priced catalogs accounted for 53 volumes and 60 


pamphlets among the purchases. 
Miss Anna M. Link was appointed librarian October 16, 1942. 


OTHER ACTIVITIES 


The following paintings have been cleaned or restored since July 
1, 1942: 

“The Storm King on the Hudson,” by Samuel Colman, was relined. 

“Mountain Scene,” by I’. E. Church, was cleaned. 

“Mountain Scene,” by I. Diday, was cleaned. 

“Painting Representing Falls, supposed to be Genesee Falls, N. Y.” by William 
Winstanley, was relined and restored. From the geologic formation seen in 
the painting, it was determined that the falls could not be Genesee Falls of 
New York, but could be part of the Great Falls of the Potomac. This painting 
belonged to George Washington and is now the property of the division of history 
of the National» Museum. 

“Moonlight Scene from a Grotto on a Rocky Coast,” by an unknown artist, 
was cleaned. This painting belonged to George Washington and is now the 
property of the division of history of the National Museum. 

“Portrait of Judge Denny,’ by Thomas Sully, was relined. Property of the 
Supreme Court. 

“Portrait of Col. Timothy Pickering’? was varnished and the frame restored. 
Property of the War Department. 


Advice and supervision was given the United States Capitol re- 
garding the large Halsall naval painting, “The Monitor and Merri- 
mac,” painted in 1884. 

Eight exhibition cases containing ancient necklaces, rare Persian 
paintings, ceramics, jewelry, cameo glass, and miniatures were moved 
from the first floor to the ground floor. 

Eight of the antique wooden and terra-cotta statues in the Gellatly 
Collection are now shown on shelves against a monk’s-cloth back- 
ground. The rearrangement made possible the removal of two large 
pedestals, greatly improving the general appearance of the large 
gallery. 

Another rearrangement made possible by the addition of two exhibi- 
tion cases has brought together nearly all the rare Chinese glass, 
jade, and pottery. 

K. T. Wu and C. M. Wang, of the Library of Congress, translated 
the inscription on the Northern Wei stele (357, Gellatly Collection), 
and made a number of rubbings of this Chinese statue. 

The huge vase showing a copy of Guido Reni’s “Aurora” and a 
self portrait of Guido Reni (226, Pell Collection) was appropriately 
placed in the center of the National Museum rotunda. 

The largest task of the year was the making of a sheet catalog with 
cross references of the paintings and sculpture of the collection. The 


? 


REPORT OF .THE SECRETARY 39 


works of art were carefully described and identified both as to artist 
and subject, but there still remain some dates and measurements to 
be checked. 


SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS 


The following exhibitions were held: 

July 1 through 27, 1942.—Exhibition of 20 oil paintings, 17 water 
colors, 2 pastels, by Sefiorita Carmen Madrigal Nieto, of Costa Rica, 
and 1 map of Costa Rica and 1 vacation advertisement, was spon- 
sored by the Minister of Costa Rica, Sefor Dr. Don Luis Fernandez, 
and the Pan American Union. 

September 15 through 30, 1942.—Exhibition of 30 oil paintings by 
Sefiorita Pachita Crespi, of Costa Rica, was sponsored by the Minister 
of Costa Rica, Sefior Dr. Don Luis Fernandez, and the Pan American 
Union. 

November 5 through 29, 1942—Exhibition of 61 oil paintings by 
Frank C. Kirk, of New York City. 

December 12, 1942, through January 17, 1943.—Exhibition of 95 
miniatures by 46 members of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature 
Painters. 

January 8 through 31, 1943.—Exhibition of 50 oil paintings and 10 
designs on Lenox vases and platters by Simon Lissim, of New York 
City. 

February 5 through 28, 1943.—Exhibition of 70 water colors by 
Leonora Quarterman, of Savannah, Ga. 

June 4 through 27, 1943.—Exhibition of 46 oil paintings by Walter 
King Stone, of Ithaca, N. Y. 

Ten special graphic arts exhibits were held in the gallery as follows: 

July 15 through August 30, 1942—Exhibition of 32 “Prints by 24 
Masters,” selected from the collection of the division of graphic arts. 

September 1942.—Exhibition of 35 prints of “Pop” Hart, selected 
from the collection of the division of graphic arts. 

October 1942.—Exhibition of 37 pencil drawings by Mrs. Beatrice 
Field, of Winchester, Mass. 

November 1942.—Exhibition of 35 wood cuts and linoleum cuts by 
Norman Kent, of Geneva, N. Y. 

December 1942.—Exhibition of 85 etchings by Ralph Fabri, of 
New York, N. Y. 

January 1943.—Exhibition of 30 color prints by the American Color 
Print Society. 

February 1943.—Exhibition of 18 lithographs by Peter Hurd, of 
San Patricio, N. Mex. 

March 1943—Exhibition of 27 etchings and 7 pen drawings by 
Mrs. Helen Miller, New York, N. Y. 


40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


April 1943.—Exhibition of 35 etchings by James McBey, of New 
Work. Nv. 

May 1943.—Exhibition of 12 drypoints and 20 wax-pencil drawings 
by George T. Tobin, of New Rochelle, N. Y. 


PUBLICATIONS 


Torman, R. P. Report on the National Collection of Fine Arts for the year 
ended June 80, 1942. Appendix 3, Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution for the year ended June 30, 1942, pp. 46-50. 

Loner, J. E. Report on the Freer Gallery of Art for the year ended June 30, 1942. 
Appendix 4, Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the 
year ended June 380, 1942, pp. 51-55. 


Respectfully submitted. 


R. P. Totman, Acting Director. 
Dr. C. G. AxBgort, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 4 
REPORT ON THE FREER GALLERY OF ART 


Str: I have the honor to submit the twenty-third annual report on 
the Freer Gallery of Art for the year ended June 30, 1948. 


THE COLLECTIONS 
Additions to the collections by purchase are as follows: 


BRONZE 


42.14 Chinese, 14th to 12th century B. ©. Shang dynasty. Ceremonial covered 
vessel of the type yu in the form of two horned owls standing back to 
back. Patination: Outside, gray-green with much red (cuprite) in the 
furrows of the design ; inside, bare metal with incrustations of malachite, 
cuprite and azurite. 0.236 x 0.213 over all. (Illustrated.) 


GOLD 


43.1. Persian, 10th century (A. D. 967-977). Biyid period. Small ewer of 
yellow gold. Decoration chiseled in high relief on a delicately granu- 
lated ground, and engraved. Two inscriptions in excellent Kufic script, 
the upper reading: “Blessing and happiness and power to Abu: Mansur 
al-Amir Bakhtiyir ibn Mu‘izz ad-Dawla. May God prolong his days.” 
The lower inscription repeats good wishes. H. 0.187; over all 0.160. 
Weight: 503 grams. (Illustrated.) 

48.8 Persian, 11th to 12th century. Medal, with designs executed in relief: 

Obverse: a bearded king, enthroned; two attendants. 
Reverse: the same king, mounted, with a falcon on his left hand. 
He is accompanied by an eagle and is trampling a dragon. 
Diameter: 0.048. 
PAINTING 


43.2. Persian (Mesopotamia), A. D. 1224. Baghdad school. 
By ‘Abdallah ibn al-Fadl. Leaf from an Arabic translation of the 
Materia Medica of Dioscorides. Book IV, Caps. 88-84. Two miniatures 
in color: 
A. Mushrooms. 
B. Autumn Crocus. 
Text in naskhi script; two rubrics. Paper leaf: 0.320 x 0.225. 


PAINTING AND CALLIGRAPHY 


42.15. A leaf from a royal album upon which are mounted: 
A. Indian, 17th century, Mughal. By Bichitr. The Emperor Jahin- 
gir, enthroned upon an hourglass, receiving the homage of a 
mullah, two European courtiers and a native prince. In colors 
and gold. Signature. 0.275 x 0.180. 


41 


42 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


B. Indo-Persian, 18th century (A. D. 1727). By Muhammad Sadic. 
Floral borders painted in naturalistic style on a gold ground. 
Signature. Gr. W. 0.060. 
C. Persian, early 17th century: a page of nasta‘lig writing by ‘Imad 
al-Hasani (on the reverse side). 
42.16, Ai leaf from a royal album (as above) on which are mounted: 
A. Indian, 17th century. Mughal. School of Shih Jahan. An imag- 
inary meeting between the Emperor Jahangir and Shah ‘Abbas I, 
who are attended by two courtiers with gifts. In colors and 
gold. 0.275 x 0.200. 
B. Indo-Persian, 18th century (A. D. 1727). By Muhammad Sadiq. 
Floral borders, dated. Gr. W. 0.060. 
C. Persian, early 17th century (A. D. 1608). A page of nasta‘lig 
writing by ‘Imid al-Hasani (on the reverse side). 
42.17. Two leaves from a royal album (as above) on which are mounted: 
42.18. A. Indian, 17th century. Mughal, school of Shah Jahan. Shah 
Jahan holding a night audience for a large company of mullahs: 
a double-page composition mounted on two facing pages. In 
color and gold. 0.305 x 0.460 over all. 
B. Indo-Persian, 18th century (A. D. 1727). By Muhammad Sadiq. 
Floral borders. Signature and date. Gr. W. 0.048. 
C. Persian, 17th century. Two pages of nasta‘liq script, unsigned (on 
the reverse sides). 


PORCELAIN 


42.19. Chinese, A. D. 1662-1722. Ch‘ing dynasty, K‘ang Hsi period. Ching-té 
Chén. Flower vase with “ox-blood” glaze. H. o. 176. 

42.20. Chinese, A. D. 1662-1722. Ch‘ing dynasty, K‘ang Hsi period. Ching-té 
Chén. Flower vase with “peach-bloom” glaze. Six-character mark in 
underglaze blue. Ivory stand. H. o. 198. 

43.5. Chinese, A. D. 1662-1772. Ch‘ing dynasty, K‘ang Hsi period. Ching-té 
Chén, Circular, covered box for seal cinnabar, with a “peach-bloom” 
glaze. Six-character mark in underglaze blue. 0.072 x 0.036. 

43.6. Chinese, A. D. 1662-1722. Ch‘ing dynasty, K‘ang Hsi period. Ching-té 

43.7. Chén. Two water-pots glazed in very pale greenish-blue inside and out. 
Both have a six-character mark in underglaze blue. a, 0.087 x 0.087; 
b, 0.089 x 0.088. 


POTTERY 


43.4. Chinese, 7th to 10th century. T‘ang dynasty. Sepulehral vase with 
serpent handles; slightly beveled foot and coneave base. Body of a 
hard, close-grained, buff-white clay, covered with a transparent glaze 
tending to pale green. 0.529x 0.286. (Illustrated.) 

42.21. Chinese, 11th to 12th century. Sung dynasty. Chii-lu hsien. Pillow, 
Square in section with concave sides; vent-hole in one end. Body 
of hard, buff clay covered with a faintly crackled glaze over an ivory- 
white slip. A Ch‘ien Lung (18th century) inscription of 78 characters 
and 2 seals painted in reddish-brown. 0.124 square x 0.209 over all. 

42.13. Persian, 11th century. So-called Aghkand. Bowl, shallow, flat rimmed ; 
low ring foot. Body of soft, red earthenware covered with a thin, 
transparent glaze of greenish cast over a white slip. Bird decora- 
tion incised with areas of the design colored green, yellow, and aubergine 
underglaze. 0.076 x 0.283. (Illustrated. ) 


Secretary's Report, 1943.—Appendix 4 PLATE 1 


42.13 


RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION OF THE 
FREER GALLERY OF ART 


Secretary's Report, 1943.—Appendix 4 PLATE 2 


42 .14 


RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION OF THE 
FREER GALLERY OF ART. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 43 


43.3. Persian, early 15th century. Kashan. Large, shallow bowl with flaring 
rim and bold foot ring (repairs; restorations in the rim). Body of 
soft, firm, buff clay covered with an opaque white glaze. Decoration 
painted in turquoise green, blue, dark red, aubergine, and flesh-color over- 
glaze. Inside: the assault by a band of horsemen upon a walled town 
defended by bowmen; outside: six hero scenes. Inscription in black 
naskhi script. 0.111 x 0.478. 

The work of the curatorial staff has been devoted to the study and 
recording of the new acquisitions listed above and to other Arabic, 
Chinese, Japanese, and Syrian objects submitted for purchase. In 
addition to this work within the collection, 1,941 objects of Oriental 
provenance and 235 photographs of such objects were examined, and 
oral or written reports made upon them. Written translations of 105 
inscriptions in Oriental languages were made upon request. In addi- 
tion to this regular curatorial work, that contributing to the war 
services which occupied a major part of the time of the staff is sum- 
marized as follows: 


WAR WORK 


Aside from answering many inquiries from, and supplying infor- 
mation to, various Government agencies, a considerable amount of 
translation has been made for the Government from both Chinese 
and Japanese sources, amounting to hundreds of pages of typewrit- 
ten matter. Work upon maps of the war areas has entailed the identi- 
fication and transliteration of Chinese and Japanese names to the 
number of more than 5,000. This work is continuing. 

In May 1943 three lectures on Chinese culture as reflected in the 
fine arts were given at the Freer Gallery by the Director in response 
to the combined request of the United States Office of Education and 
the acting superintendent of the public schools of the District of 
Columbia, in furtherance of their plan to disseminate knowledge of 
China in the public schools. The audiences were composed of Wash- 
ington teachers (total number 264). The subjects of the lectures were 
as follows: 

May 8: A short discussion of art in general. China and her people. 

May 15: Bronze and jade. Purpose and use. 

May 22: Chinese painting. 

A lecture on Asiatic painting, illustrated with Freer Gallery slides, 
was given by Miss Guest on October 2, 1942, in the St. Francis Audi- 
torium of the Art Museum, Santa Fe, N. Mex., for the benefit of the 
Indian Service Club. The sum realized ($160) made possible the 
Christmas boxes sent by the club to its members in the armed forces 
in this country and abroad. 


44 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
CHANGES IN EXHIBITION 


Four hundred eighty-eight changes were made in exhibition, as 
follows: 


Arabic: (Amida) palatine ole So eae Dee Cre Be 2 
Chinese: bronzes ee ee a eS Sa ee ak 103 
Chinese olde ae ea eae ee ite ma ee 6 
CHI NeSO as Ce a Se ee a ee ee LE Cyne AIS | a 164 
Chinese msrh lei ers aie eT SE EE Rae eae ee ea 2 
Chinese spain tl rage see eet bee ea a ea ea ale Pb) 38 
CUNESO | OL GT a Ie ae ose ae a NN Ng 14 
(CD IMESE! | MO GLEN ya Se ee RN SNL Ee nae Sok Sheds a a 95 
WHIM |SSEs STE Ve rh PA a Te Bang, Dad Se 2 
Chinese Neil ver: pil pees eel oe A Me a te ae Vinci = ar Bae OB 6 
Chinesevsculptures bronzewee ss ain els eee MSR emeer Lea Tee IE 10 
Chinese sSerl Pere; FS EO wes eee a a aan a rl a eee en 2 
BEY pian LRMOSEA til pve bebe y eee a ee ee a a 1 
NEG ay EPH OU 0) 0) Yc meme vie eRe BRL J Tou a ee pea ee al 
Korean ‘pottery 82) ee aa ee ee = oe 
Persian) pottery see es ee ae oes re See ee 2 
POTS Tein i SU yc Nee aa a ess ne a ere ae 1 
ATTENDANCE 


The Gallery has been open to the public every day from 9 until 
4:30 o’clock with the exception of Mondays, Christmas Day and 
New Year’s Day. 

The total attendance of visitors coming in at the main entrance was 
53,700. Sixty-nine other visitors on Mondays bring the grand total 
to 53,769. The total attendance on weekdays was 30,759; Sundays, 
22,941. The average weekday attendance was 118; the average Sun- 
day attendance, 441. The highest monthly attendance was in August, 
with 5,832 visitors; the lowest in December, with 2,571 visitors. 

There were 1,026 visitors to the main office during the year; the 
purposes of their visits were as follows: 


Mor™ general: Vir L Opes Me | O wae se a ee a ee Tee ae ee eee a 316 
FEO REE ON CCE ALD, VSS Cee ge oie rE a cS 175 
Par Raster paintings and stextileg ee a ee ee) 37 
Near, astern) pain tines) and mMAnUSeRptse sess eee eee 27 
Oriental pottery, jude, glass, bronze, sculpture, lacquer, and 
1a: B08) aX 6X0 ones Bie RAE At Sk EP IS ee Rae Od NIU SERS SS, 2 hoe bears 0 Ly aE 82 
By Zantine OD ]OCusy cae eee ee ee ee eee 9 
Waslingcon DMLGNUSCTID Cai ee ae Boe ev gee oe UE 20 
Tot Tend * nthe ibe ary 2s ee eal ee NL a oe ee re ee 168 
To make tracings and sketches from library books_____.-_-___---_-.. 18 
Tov see building: and: installation oe ee ee ee eee 14 
Tovobtain’ permission. tomphotorraph’ or (sketch) 2222 eee 7 
To Submit Zobjecrs) LON! (Oxy ME Lo ry ee ee ee ee = 97 
Tonseemembersorihe xs te Mes ee 2 Bee eek ee ee 163 
Novsee exhibition gallertesiion: Monday 2 ase 2a ee ees ee eee 11 


Nolexamine or purchase photos rep gee eee eee ee eee ree eee 273 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 45 


DOCENT SERVICE 


Eight groups were given docent service in the exhibition galleries 
(total 415); four groups were given instruction in the study room 
(total 21). 

PERSONNEL 

It is with great sadness that we have to record the death on 
December 29, 1942, of John Ellerton Lodge, Director of the Freer 
Gallery from its beginning in the autumn of 1920. Under his wise 
administration the Freer collections and endowment were founded 
as a public institution for the further prosecution of the study and 
the acquisition of Oriental fine arts. Both branches of this work 
were developed simultaneously. The first led to the training of 
language students and to field work in China, as well as to studies 
within the collection; the second, to an immense and very significant 
expansion in every field: the sections devoted to Chinese bronzes, 
jades, painting, and pottery raised to higher levels of quality; the 
sections devoted to Near Eastern and East Indian manuscripts, 
paintings, ceramics, glass and metal work created almost in entirety 
upon small and, for the most part, unimportant nuclei in the original 
collection. 

Elizabeth Hill Maltby, librarian since December 17, 1935, resigned 
her position on August 15, 1942. On the same day Frances Poncelet, 
who had reported for duty July 27, was appointed librarian. 

Archibald G. Wenley, associate in research, was appointed Acting 
Director on January 1, 1943. On January 16 he was appointed 
Director. 

William R. B. Acker, language assistant, was placed on furlough 
December 31, 1942, being detached for service with the Office of 
War Information. 

Daisy Furscott Bishop terminated her long service at the Freer 
Gallery on January 27, 1948, being transferred to the library of the 
Smithsonian Institution. 

John A. Pope, formerly Lecturer on Chinese Art at Columbia Uni- 
versity, was appointed associate in research on April 1, 1948. 

Grace T. Whitney worked intermittently at the Gallery in the Near 
East section between October 22, 1942, and June 16, 1943. 

Joseph H. Boswell, principal guard, who had been on duty here 
since September 1923, retired at his own request June 380, 19438. 

Other changes in personnel are as follows: 

Appointments: Joseph P. Germuiller, guard, recalled from re- 
tirement August 1, 1942; Charles W. Frost, guard, August 25, 1942; 
Norman E. Baldwin, guard, November 16, 1942; James W. Burns, 
guard, by temporary transfer from the United States National Mu- 


46 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


seum, May 11, 1948; George S. Young, cabinetmaker, employed for 
special help in the cabinet shop, February 16, 1943. 

Separations from the service: Everett A. Altizer, guard, on in- 
definite furlough for naval duty, July 6, 1942; Glen P. Shephard, 
guard, on indefinite furlough for military duty, October 15, 1942; 
Norman E. Baldwin, guard, resigned February 26, 1943; Charles 
W. Frost, guard, by transfer to Airport Detachment No. 5, Gravelly 
Point, Va., April 18, 1948; Joseph P. Germuiller, guard, retired 
June 19, 1948. 

Respectfully submitted. 

A. G. WeEnNtey, Director. 
Dr. C, G. Apgor, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 5 
REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the field 
researches, office work, and other operations of the Bureau of Ameri- 
can Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 19438, conducted 
in accordance with the act of Congress of June 27, 1942, which pro- 
vides “* * * for continuing ethnological researches among the 
American Indians and the natives of Hawaii and the excavation 
and preservation of archeologic remains. * * *” 

During the fiscal year, activities concerned with the other American 
republics have been emphasized, and the energies of various staff 
members of the Bureau have been directed to an increasing extent 
to projects bearing on the war effort. In particular, members of the 
Bureau staff have cooperated with the Ethnogeographic Board in 
preparing information for the armed services, and it is expected that 
efforts in this direction will increase as the war continues. 


SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 


On January 18, 1943, M. W. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau, left 
Washington on the fifth National Geographic Society-Smithsonian 
Institution archeological expedition to southern Mexico. Excavations 
were continued at the site of La Venta in southern Tabasco and re- 
sulted in the discovery of numerous new details of construction of 
the rectangular stone-fenced enclosure, one of the central features of 
the site. Three rich burials of important personages were uncovered 
containing offerings principally of jade of unusually high quality. 
Two mosaic floors in the form of jaguar masks made of polished 
green serpentine were discovered, one at a depth of more than 20 feet. 
During the course of the work an exploration trip was made up the 
Rio de las Playas, one of the headwater streams of the Tonala River, in 
order to verify the existence of a ruin in this vicinity. The collections 
obtained during the course of excavations at La Venta were shipped 
to the National Museum in Mexico City. Mr. Stirling was assisted 
throughout the season by Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, of the division of 
archeology of the United States National Museum. 

During the course of the fiscal year Mr. Stirling contributed to the 
War Background Studies of the Smithsonian Institution an article 
entitled “Native Peoples of New Guinea,’ which was published as 

47 


48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


No. 9 of that series. He also contributed several articles to the Ethno- 
geographic Board for distribution to the armed forces. During the 
year Mr. Stirling’s paper entitled “Origin Myth of Acoma and Other 
Records” was issued as Bulletin 135 of the Bureau. 

Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted a considerable por- 
tion of the year to the reading and correcting of galley and page proof 
of his work entitled “The Indians of the Southeastern United States,” 
which is being published as Bulletin 187 of the Bureau. This will bea 
volume of approximately 850 pages exclusive of the index. 

Some further work was done on the materials preserved from the 
now extinct language of the Timucua Indians of Florida, but it was 
decided to discontinue this for the present. These materials—con- 
sisting of a catalog of Timucua words and English-Timucua index 
to the same, photocopies of the religious works in Timucua and 
Spanish printed in Mexico in the seventeenth century, and typed copies 
of these with some interlinear translation—have been labeled care- 
fully and placed in the manuscript vault. 

Time was also devoted to the extraction of ethnographical notes 
from the volumes of Early Western Travels, edited by Reuben Gold 
Thwaites. A paper entitled “Are Wars Inevitable?” was contributed 
as No. 12 to the War Background Studies of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. A few investigations were undertaken for the Board on Geo- 
graphical Names, of which Dr. Swanton is a member. 

Dr. John P. Harrington, ethnologist, was occupied during the first 
part of the year in an investigation of the Chilcotin languages of 
northern California. The results of this work indicated that Chilcotin 
was introduced into California from Canada in pre-European times, 
but owing to the varying rate in time reckoning for the accomplish- 
ment of linguistic changes, the length of Chilcotin occupancy in Cali- 
fornia cannot be estimated. With the exception of a small area south 
of the mouth of the Klamath River, Chilcotin occupies the entire 
coastal region of northern California to the mouth of Usal Creek 
in Mendocino County. In addition to the linguistic connections dis- 
covered, local traditions were obtained linking the Chilcotin peoples 
with a more northern group. Two separate stories were recorded 
deriving the Hupa from the region north of the mouth of the Klamath 
River, and one was obtained deriving the Indians of a part of the Eel 
River drainage from the Hupa region. 

Since his return to Washington, Dr. Harrington has been engaged 
in the preparation of material for the linguistic section of the Hand- 
book of South American Indians. This work resulted in the discovery 
that Witoto is Tup{-Guarani, and also the very interesting finding 
that Quechua is Hokan. The Hokan hitherto had been known to ex- 
tend only to the Subtiaba language of the west coast of Central 
America. Detailed studies of Quechua and of Cocama have been made 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 49 


for the purpose of making comparisons with other South American 
languages and with a view to discerning possible further linguistic 
affiliations. In addition to this work, Dr. Harrington has also made 
an extensive study of the grammar of the Jivaro language of South 
America. 

At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., 
senior archeologist, was engaged in prospecting and testing an in- 
teresting site in the Agate Basin, on a tributary of the Cheyenne 
River between Lusk and Newcastle, in eastern Wyoming. Dr. Roberts 
had been sent to make preliminary investigations at this location, 
despite the general policy of no regular field work for the duration 
of the war, because of the possibility that much information might 
be lost as a result of erosive activities in the area and from disturb- 
ance of the deposits by amateur collectors hunting for specimens. 
The site gave evidence of having been the scene of a bison kill on the 
edges of a marsh or meadow. Animal bones and artifacts were found 
in a stratum that breaks out of the bank some 20 feet above the bottom 
of an eroding gully. This layer is covered by an overburden that 
deepens rapidly as it is followed back into the bank, and at a depth 
of 4 feet, where the tests were terminated, was still continuing. All 
the bones found, of which there were many, proved to be modern 
bison. Associated with these were projectile points, which, although 
they suggest an affinity with the Collateral Yuma type—a form that 
has been considered relatively early in the Plains area—nevertheless do 
not have all the significant characteristics of that type. The points 
have unhesitatingly been called Yuma by numerous people who 
have examined them, and there is no question of their belonging 
in that general category, although they should not be considered 
classic forms. All the points found at the site are consistent in 
pattern, yet have a considerable range in size. In the seventy- 
some points or large and easily identified fragments found there, 
no shouldered, barbed, or tanged forms appear. The material un- 
questionably represents a cultural unit without intrusions from 
other sources. Dr. Roberts dug 32 examples out of undisturbed 
deposits. The remaining specimens are in the collections of local 
residents, who picked them up as they weathered out of the gully 
bank. Only a few end and side scrapers have been found, prob- 
ably because of the fact that the camp proper has not yet been 
located, but they are typical of those associated with the so-called 
early hunting complexes. Geologic studies have not yet been made 
of the deposits. They indicate some antiquity, but that they are 
not as old as the age formerly postulated for Yuma remains is demon- 
strated by the fact that the bison represented are all modern forms. 
It is hoped that when present conditions are over, the site can be 


50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


thoroughly excavated and detailed studies made of the material. The 
site was found by William Spencer, of Spencer, Wyo., and was re- 
ported to the Smithsonian Institution by Robert E. Frison, deputy 
game warden, Wyoming State Game and Fish Commission of New- 
castle. Permission for the investigations was granted by Leonard 
E. Davis, owner of the land. 

Leaving Newcastle, Wyo., on August 1, Dr. Roberts proceeded to 
Tucumcari and San Jon, N. Mex., for the purpose of disposing of some 
of the equipment stored there at the close of the 1941 season and ar- 
ranging for storage of the remainder for the duration. 

On his return to Washington, Dr. Roberts resumed his office activi- 
ties. Galley and page proofs were read for his report, “Archeologi- 
cal and Geological Investigations in the San Jon District, Eastern 
New Mexico,” which appeared in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 
Collections, volume 103, No. 4. Manuscript was prepared and galley 
and page proofs were read for a paper entitled “Egypt and the Suez 
Canal,” which was published as No. 11 in the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion War Background Studies. By request, an article, “Evidence for 
a Paleo-Indian in the New World,” was written for the Acta Ameri- 
cana, an international quarterly review published by the Inter-Amerti- 
can Society of Anthropology and Geography. During the period from 
October 1 to June 80 a series of survival articles was prepared from 
data furnished by members of the Smithsonian staff. These articles 
were made available to the armed forces through the office of the 
Ethnogeographic Board. Dr. Roberts devoted considerable time to 
the task of gathering this information from the Institution’s authori- 
ties in the various fields of science and working it into articles for 
general reading. He also furnished information on various subjects 
in response to requests from numerous members of the armed services. 
At the close of the fiscal year he was engaged in assisting in the prepa- 
ration of a survival manual for the Ethnogeographic Board. 

On April 1, 1948, Dr. Roberts was designated as Acting Chief of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology whenever the Chief, by reason of 
absence, illness, or other cause, is unable to discharge the duties of his 
position. 

Dr. Julian H. Steward, anthropologist, continued his activities as 
editor of the Handbook of South American Indians, one of the Smith- 
sonian projects conducted under funds transferred from the State 
Department for “Cooperation with the American Republics.” He also 
prepared a number of articles for publication in the Handbook. The 
Handbook, which is three-fourths completed, will consist of four 
volumes of text and a two-volume bibliography. Material has been 
contributed to it by 100 specialists on the Indian tribes of Central 
and South America and the Antilles. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 51 


Dr. Steward took an active part in the creation of the Inter-Ameri- 
can Society of Anthropology and Geography, the purpose of which 
is the development of cooperative anthropological and geographic re- 
search. Dr. Ralph L. Beals was appointed to take over the work of 
organizing and developing the society. The society has approxi- 
mately 700 members throughout the Americas, and the first issue of its 
quarterly journal, Acta Americana, was in press at the close of the 
fiscal year. 

Plans were developed for cooperative Institutes of Social Anthro- 
pology to assist in training students and in carrying on field work 
in the other American republics. 

Dr. Steward served as a member of committees concerned with co- 
operative work in the field of inter-American relations and was a 
member of the Board of Governors of the National Indian Institute 
of the United States. He also represented the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion at the inauguration of Dr. Everett Needham Case as president of 
Colgate University. 

Dr. Alfred Métraux, ethnologist, continued his work as assistant to 
Dr. Julian H. Steward in preparing the Handbook of South American 
Indians. In addition to editing materials furnished by other contribu- 
tors, Dr. Métraux completed a large amount of manuscript material 
of his own for use in the, Handbook. Through an arrangement with 
the National University of Mexico, Dr. Métraux went to Mexico City 
to teach from March until the end of the fiscal year. During the year 
Dr. Métraux’s paper entitled “The Native Tribes of Eastern Bolivia 
and Western Matto Grosso” was issued as Bulletin 184 of the Bureau. 

During the fiscal year Dr. Henry B. Collins, Jr., ethnologist, was 
engaged in work relating to the war, for the most part in connection 
with the Ethnogeographic Board. Early in July 1942 Dr. Collins 
was detailed by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and by 
the Chief of the Bureau to assist in handling requests for regional 
and other information received by the Ethnogeographic Board from 
the armed services and other war agencies. On February 28, 1943, 
he was elected Assistant Director of the Board and in this capacity 
continued in charge of research relating to the above-mentioned re- 
quests. 

At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. William N. Fenton, as- 
sociate anthropologist, was engaged, at the request of the Pennsyl- 
vania Historical Commission, in a brief field trip among the Seneca 
Indians on the Cornplanter Grant in northwestern Pennsylvania. 
The object of this work was to collect Indian geographic names and 
traditions on hunting and fishing along the Allegheny River. 

Following his return to Washington, Dr. Fenton devoted most 
of his time during the remainder of the year to projects received 


52 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


by the Ethnogeographic Board from the armed services and other 
war agencies. One of the results of his work has been a strategic file 
of personnel in the United States familiar with foreign countries. 
Growing out of the Roster of Personnel, World Travel, and Special 
Knowledge Available to War Agencies at the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, as first compiled by the Smithsonian War Committee early 
in 1942, the present World File of Regional Specialists at the Eth- 
nogeographic Board now includes over 2,500 names of individuals, 
their travel and special knowledge. Cross-indexed by name, as well 
as by country, this index has enabled the Director of the Board to 
locate promptly any person in response to requests from the armed 
forces for authorities who might possess unusual information, photo- 
graphs, maps, and knowledge of languages of a given area. Certain 
officers as well as civilian specialists have returned repeatedly to the 
Smithsonian building to consult this file. In recognition of this 
work, in February Dr. Fenton was elected a research associate of 
the Ethnogeographic Board. 

At the request of the War Department, Office of Chief of Engi- 
neers, to the Institution, Dr. Fenton delivered a lecture on “The 
Nature and Diversity of Human Culture” to a class in Psychology 
of Administration. 

Dr. Fenton has continued membership on the Smithsonian War 
Committee, acting as its secretary. 

Work on the Indian place names of western New York and west- 
ern Pennsylvania has continued by correspondence with Messrs. M. 
H. Deardorff, Warren, Pa., and Chas. E. Congdon, of Salamanca, 
N. Y. At the end of the fiscal year, another correspondent, Dr. 
Elizabeth L. Moore, of Meredith College, had about completed the 
translation of J. F. Lafitau’s Moeurs des Sauvages Amériquains (2 
vols., Paris, 1724), a project reported last year. 

Publications for the year include: Songs from the Iroquois Long- 
house: Program Notes for an Album of American Indian Music 
from the Eastern Woodlands, published jointly by the Smithsonian 
Institution and the Library of Congress as vol. 6 of Folk Music of 
the United States (Archive of American Folk Song) ; Contacts be- 
tween Iroquois Herbalism and Colonial Medicine, in Smithsonian 
Report for 1941; Last Seneca Pigeon Hunts, én Warren County Penn- 
sylvania Almanac, 19438; and Fish Drives among the Cornplanter 
Seneca, in Pennsylvania Archaeologist; also several book reviews in 
professional and other journals. At the close of the fiscal year, the 
paper entitled “The Last Passenger Pigeon Hunts of the Cornplanter 
Senecas,” which had been prepared with M. H. Deardorff for the 
Anthropological Papers of the Bureau, had been accepted for pub- 
lication in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 53 


In December 1942 Dr. Philip Drucker, assistant ethnologist, re- 
ceived a commission in the United States Naval Reserve and was 
granted a military furlough. Dr. Drucker had spent the preceding 
portion of the fiscal year in preparing final reports on archeological 
work previously conducted in Mexico by the National Geographic 
Society-Smithsonian Institution archeological expeditions. These 
reports, in press at the end of the fiscal year, will appear as Bulletins 
of the Bureau. 


SPECIAL RESEARCHES 


Miss Frances Densmore, a collaborator of the Bureau, continued 
work on the study of Indian music by completing two large manu- 
scripts—Seminole Music, and Music of Acoma, Isleta, Cochiti, and 
Zuni Pueblos. She also devoted considerable time to a study of the 
traces of foreign influences in the music of the American Indians, 
During a portion of the year she was engaged in writing a handbook 
of the Smithsonian—Densmore collection of sound recordings of Ameri- 
can Indian music for the National Archives. 

Miss Densmore presented to the Bureau a record of her field work 
on Indian music and customs for the Bureau from 1907 to 1941, and 
completed the bibliography of her writings on that subject. She also 
presented the original phonograph record of a speech in the Ute 
language by the famous Ute chief Red Cap, made in 1916, and a 
similar record of a speech in the Yuma language by Kacora, made in 
1922, with accompanying information. 

In 1943 Miss Densmore completes 50 years’ study of the music, 
customs, and history of the American Indians, 


EDITORIAL WORK AND PUBLICATIONS 


The editorial work of the Bureau continued during the year under 
the immediate direction of the editor, M. Helen Palmer. There were 
issued one Annual Report and three Bulletins, as follows: 


Fifty-ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1941-1942. 
12 pp. 

Bulletin 132. Source material on the history and ethnology of the Caddo Indians, 
by John R. Swanton. 332 pp., 19 pls., 5 text figs. 

Bulletin 134. The native tribes of eastern Bolivia and western Matto Grosso, 
by Alfred Métraux. 182 pp., 5 pls., 1 text fig. 

Bulletin 135. Origin myth of Acoma and other records, by Matthew W. Stirling. 
123 pp., 17 pls., 8 text figs. 


The following Bulletins were in press at the close of the fiscal year: 


Bulletin 133. Anthropological papers, numbers 19-26: 
No. 19. A search for songs among the Chitimacha Indians in Louisiana, by 
Frances Densmore. 
566766—44——_5, 


54 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


No, 20. Archeological survey on the northern Northwest Coast, by Philip 
Drucker. With appendix, Early vertebrate fauna of the British 
Columbia Coast, by Edna M. Fisher. 
No. 21. Some notes on a few sites in Beaufort County, South Carolina, by 
Regina Flannery. 
No. 22. An analysis and interpretation of the ceramic remains from two sites 
near Beaufort, South Carolina, by James B. Griffin. 
No. 23. The eastern Cherokees, by William Harlen Gilbert, Jr. 
No. 24. Aconite poison whaling in Asia and America: An Aleutian transfer 
to the New World, by Robert F’. Heizer. 
No. 25. The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River: Their social and religious 
life, by Diamond Jenness. 
No. 26. The quipu and Peruvian civilization, by John R. Swanton. 
Bulletin 136. Anthropological papers, numbers 27-32: 
No. 27. Music of the Indians of British Columbia, by Frances Densmore. 
No. 28. Choctaw music, by Frances Densmore. 
No. 29. Some ethnological data concerning one hundred Yucatan plants, by 
Morris Steggerda. 
No. 30. A description of thirty towns in Yucatan, Mexico, by Morris Steggerda. 
No. 31. Some western Shoshoni myths, by Julian H. Steward. 
No. 32. New material from Acoma, by Leslie A. White. 
Bulletin 137. The Indians of the southeastern United States, by John R. 
Swanton. 
Bulletin 138. Stone monuments of southern Mexico, by Matthew W. Stirling. 
Bulletin 139. An introduction to the ceramics of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, 
Mexico, by C. W. Weiant. 
Bulletin 140. Ceramic sequences at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico, by Philip 
Drucker. 
Bulletin 141. Ceramie stratigraphy at Cerro de las Mesas, by Philip Drucker. 
Bulletin 142. The contemporary culture of the Cahita Indians, by Ralph L. 
Beals. 


Publications distributed totaled 10,793. 


LIBRARY 


Accessions during the fiscal year totaled 321. There has been a 
sharp decrease in all classes of accessions, owing to reduced funds in 
the case of purchases and to war conditions in the case of gifts and 
exchanges. 

The Library of Congress cards for nonserial matter on hand at the 
beginning of the fiscal year, amounting to several thousand, have 
been prepared and filed. Cards for foreign periodicals and society 
transactions have been prepared and filed, including shelf-list cards. 
A record of holdings appears on each of these shelf-list entries and 
some are now in their permanent form. 

Several thousand pamphlets, including a number of valuable ones 
pertaining to the Indian Territory and the Five Civilized Tribes, 
were reclassified and reshelved. 

The library has been much in use as a source of material for the 
Ethnogeographic Board and the war agencies. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 55 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


During the year E. G. Cassedy, illustrator, continued the prepara- 
tion of illustrations, maps, and drawings for the publications of the 
Bureau and for those of other branches of the Institution. 


COLLECTIONS 


Collections transferred by the Bureau of American Ethnology to 
the department of anthropology, United States National Museum, 
during the fiscal year were as follows: 


Accession 
number 


162682. Archeological materials collected at Tres Zapotes, Tuxtla District, south- 
ern Veracruz, Mexico, during the winters of 1938-89 and 1939-40 by 
the National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution expedition 
under M. W. Stirling. (1,859 specimens. ) 

163712. 14 ethnological specimens originally obtained by C. Spencer from the 
Payamino Indians, eastern Ecuador, and 3 archeological specimens 
from excavations along the Napo River in the vicinity of Eden, Hcuador. 
(17 specimens. ) 

165128. Stone ax blade and 5 bark-cloth dance masks collected by Dr. Irving 
Goldman from the Kobeua (Cubeo) Indians, southeastern Colombia. 
(6 specimens. ) 

MISCELLANEOUS 


During the course of the year information was furnished by mem- 
bers of the Bureau staff in reply to numerous inquiries concerning 
the North American Indians, both past and present, and the Mexican 
peoples of the prehistoric and early historic periods. Various speci- 
mens sent to the Bureau were identified and data on them furnished 
for their owners. 

Personnel.—indefinite furloughs for military service were granted 
to Dr. Philip Drucker and Walter B. Greenwood on December 31, 
1942, and January 15, 1948, respectively; Miss Nancy A. Link was 
appointed editorial clerk in connection with the preparation of the 
Handbook of South American Indians on August 15, 1942, by trans- 
fer from the Bureau, and resigned on January 238, 1943; Mrs. Eloise 
B. Edelen was appointed editorial assistant on August 24, 1942, on 
the Bureau roll; John E. Anglim was appointed senior illustrator 
for the Handbook on August 12, 1942, and resigned on April 21, 
1943, to be inducted into the Army; Mrs. Verne E. Samson was 
appointed editorial clerk for the Handbook on December 22, 1942; 
Mrs. Ruth S. Abramson resigned as assistant clerk-stenographer on 
May 28, 1943. 

Respectfully submitted. 

M. W. Srietine, Chief. 
Dr. C. G. Apzor, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 6 
REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 
ties of the International Exchange Service for the fiscal year ended 
June 30, 1943: 

From the appropriation “General Expenses, Smithsonian Institu- 
tion” there was allocated for the expenses of the Service $45,808. 
This amount was reduced by the Bureau of the Budget by setting aside 
a reserve of $10,000, making the sum available $35,808. This latter 
included $928 to meet within-grade promotions to certain employees 
as provided for by the Ramspeck Act. 

In addition to the above, $1,500 was allotted to the Institution by 
the Department of State from a special Congressional appropriation 
to that Department for carrying on its work of promoting the cultural 
relations between the United States and other American republics. 
The money transferred to the Institution was used by the Exchange 
Service to send packages of publications by mail directly to their 
destinations in Argentina and Brazil, the only countries in South 
America with which there are no reciprocal arrangements for the ex- 
change of publications under governmental frank. 

The number ef packages received during the year for distribution 
at home and abroad was 513,460, a decrease from last year of 47,691. 
These packages weighed a total of 248,648 pounds, a decrease of 
77,758 pounds. This material is classified as follows: 


Packages Weight 


Sent |Received| Sent Received 


Pounds | Pounds 


United States parliamentary documents sent abroad_________-- OOO Thal ae eee 126,826}. 222 eee 
Publications received in return for parliamentary documents_-_-_|_..__----- STSile- see ake 2, 529 
United States departmental documents sent abroad________-__- OO GBS [Eos arene 49,803) | soc eee 
Publications received in return for departmental documents____|_..______- ONT alas = Soe 2, 403 
Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications sent abroad_._| 56, 654 |__..______ 58621) |b zeae 
Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications received from 
abroad for distribution in the United States____...........___|_--------- $5080" |e eee ee 8, 967 
fbf OY Kigali wh ge Aid al le Sey el ok peace 507, 095 6,365 | 234, 749 13, 899 
Grand totale see eee Ps ven ee ee 513,460 248,648 


Packages are forwarded abroad partly by freight to exchange bu- 
reaus for distribution, and partly by mail directly to their destina- 
56 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 57 


tions. The number of boxes shipped abroad was 643, an increase over 
last year of 44 boxes. Of these, 418 were for depositories of full 
sets of United States governmental documents, and 225 were for de- 
positories of partial sets and for various establishments and indi- 
viduals abroad. The number of packages sent by mail was 100,074. 

As has been stated in previous reports, the war has made it nec- 
essary for the Institution to suspend shipments to many foreign 
countries. However, since last year’s report was issued, shipping 
conditions have improved sufficiently to make it possible to add a 
few countries in the Eastern Hemisphere to those to which consign- 
ments are being transmitted. ‘The countries to which shipments were 
being made at the close of the fiscal year 1943 were as follows: 

HKastern Hemisphere: 
Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 
Republic of Ireland (formerly Irish Free State). 
Portugal. 
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 
Union of South Africa. 
India. 
Australia. 
New Zealand. 
Western Hemisphere: All countries. 

It was stated in the last report that packages for places in the 
Western Hemisphere were sent by,mail and that there was some de- 
lay in transit due to examination of their contents by the censor. The 
Office of Censorship has been good enough to make special arrange- 
ments whereby packages mailed abroad by the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution now pass the postal censor with little delay. 


FOREIGN DEPOSITORIES OF GOVERNMENTAL DOCUMENTS 


The number of sets of United States official publications received 
for transmission abroad through the International Exchange Service 
is 91 (55 full and 36 partial sets). On account of war conditions it 
is possible at this time to forward only 54 of these sets. The remain- 
ing 37 sets are being withheld for the duration. 

Through arrangements with the Librarian of Congress, the large 
number of boxes of governmental documents that had accumulated 
at the Institution and were overtaxing the limited space here, are 
now stored in the Library of Congress. 

The partial-set depository of the Dominican Republic has been 
changed to the Library of the University of Santo Domingo, and the 
depository in Paraguay, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Library 
Section, Asuncién. 


58 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


A complete list of the depositories follows. Under present war 
conditions, consignments are forwarded only to those countries listed 
on the previous page. 


DEPOSITORIES OF FULL SETS 


ARGENTINA: Direccié6n de Investigaciones, Archivo, Biblioteca y Legislacién 
Extranjera, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, Buenos Aires. 
AUSTRALIA: Commonwealth Parliament and National Library, Canberra. 
New SoutH WaAtes: Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 
QUEENSLAND: Parliamentary Library, Brisbane. 
South AUSTRALIA: Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 
TASMANIA: Parliamentary Library, Hobart. 
VictorIA: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 
WESTERN AUSTRAIIA: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 
BELeGIuM: Bibliothéque Royale, Bruxelles. 
BrAziz: Instituto Nacional do Livro, Rio de Janeiro. 
CaAnapA: Library of Parliament, Ottawa. 
MANITOBA: Provincial Library, Winnipeg. 
OnTARIO: Legislative Library, Toronto. 
QueEseEc: Library of the Legislature of the Province of Quebec. 
CHILE: Biblioteca Nacional, Santiago.. 
CHINA: Bureau of International Exchange, Ministry of Education, Chungking. 
CoLoMBIA: Biblioteca Nacional, Bogota. 
Costa Rica: Oficina de Depdésito y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, San 
José. 
CuspA: Ministerio de Estado, Canje Internacional, Habana. 
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Bibliothéque de l’Assemblée Nationale, Prague. 
DENMARK: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen. 
Eeypr: Bureau des Publications, Ministére des Finances, Cairo. 
EstoniA: Riigiraamatukogu (State Library), Tallinn. 
FINLAND: Parliamentary Library, Helsinki. 
FRANCE: Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris. 
GERMANY: Reichstauschstelle im Reichsminsterium ftir Wissenschaft, Erziehung 
und Volksbildung, Berlin, N. W. 7. 
PrussIA: Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, N. W. 7. 
GREAT BRITAIN: 
ENGLAND: British Museum, London. 
Lonpon: London School of Economics and Political Science. (Depository 
of the London County Council.) 
Huncary: Library, Hungarian House of Delegates, Budapest. 
InpIA: Imperial Library, Calcutta. 
IRELAND: National Library of Ireland, Dublin. 
ITraty: Ministero dell’Educazione Nazionale, Rome. 
JAPAN: Imperial Library of Japan, Tokyo. 
Latv1A: Bibliothéque d’Etat, Riga. 
LEAGUE oF Nations: Library of the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. 
Mexico: Direcci6n General de Informacién, Secretaria de Gobernacién, Mexico, 
D. F. 
NETHERLANDS: Royal Library, The Hague. 
New ZEALAND: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 
NORTHERN IRELAND: H. M. Stationery Office, Belfast. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 59 


Norway: Universitets-Bibliothek, Oslo. (Depository of the Government of 
Norway.) 
Prru: Secci6n de Propaganda y Publicaciones, Ministerio de Relaciones Ex- 
teriores, Lima. 
PoLanp: Bibliothéque Nationale, Warsaw. 
PortTuGAL: Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. 
RumMAnrIA: Academia Romana, Bucharest. 
Spain: Cambio Internacional de Publicaciones, Avenida de Calvo Sotelo 20, 
Madrid. 
SwEDEN: Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. 
SWITZERLAND: Bibliotheque Centrale Fédérale, Berne. 
TuRKEY: Department of Printing and Engraving, Ministry of Education, 
Istanbul. 
UNIon oF SourH Arrgica: State Library, Pretoria, Transvaal. 
Union or Sovier SoctaList Repusiics: All-Union Lenin Library, Moscow 115. 
UKRAINE: Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, 
Kiev. 
Urnueuay: Oficina de Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, Montevideo. 
VENEZUELA: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas. 
Yueostavia: Ministére de l’Education, Belgrade. 


DEPOSITORIES OF PARTIAL SETS 


AFGHANISTAN: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Publications Department, Kabul. 
BottviA: Biblioteca del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, La Paz. 
BRAZIL: 

Minas GeEraks: Directoria Geral de Estatistica em Minas, Bello Horizonte. 
BritisH GUIANA: Government Secretary’s Office, Georgetown, Demerara. 
CANADA: 

ALBERTA: Provincial Library, Edmonton. 

BRITISH CoLuMBIA: Provincial Library, Victoria. 

New Brunswick: Legislative Library, Fredericton. 

Nova Scotia: Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, Halifax. 

Prince EpwArD IsLanp: Legislative and Public Library, Charlottetown. 

SASKATCHEWAN: Legislative Library, Regina. 

Cryton: Chief Secretary’s Office, Record Department of the Library, Colombo. 
CHINA: National Library of Peiping. 
DoMINICAN REPUBLIC: Biblioteca de la Universidad de Santo Domingo, Ciudad 
Trujillo. 
Ecuanor: Biblioteca Nacional, Quito. 
GUATEMALA: Biblioteca Nacional, Guatemala. 
Hartt: Bibliothéque Nationale, Port-au-Prince. 
HONDURAS: 
Biblioteca y Archivo Nacionales, Tegucigalpa. 
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Tegucigalpa. 
IcELAND: National Library, Reykjavik. 
INDIA : 
Bencat: Secretary, Bengal Legislative Council Department, Council House, 
Calcutta. 

BIHAR AND ORISSA: Revenue Department, Patna. 

BompBay: Undersecretary to the Government of Bombay, General Depart- 

ment, Bombay. 

Burma: Secretary to the Government of Burma, Education Department, 

Rangoon. 


60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


PunsAB: Chief Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, Lahore. 
UNITED PROVINCES oF AGRA AND OUDH: University of Allahabad, Allahabad. 
JAMAICA: Colonial Secretary, Kingston. 
LiperiIA: Department of State, Monrovia. 
Matta: Minister for the Treasury, Valleta. 
NEWFOUNDLAND: Department of Home Affairs, St. John’s. 
NicAracua: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Managua. 
PanaMA: Ministerio de Relaciones Dxteriores, Panama. 
Paraguay: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Secci6n Biblioteca, Asuncién. 
SALVADOR : 
Biblioteca Nacional, San Salvador. 
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, San Salvador. 
THAILAND: Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok. 
VATICAN City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City, Italy. 


INTERPARLIAMENTARY EXCHANGE OF THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL 


In the last report it was stated that the sending of the daily issues 
of the Congressional Record and the Federal Register was discon- 
tinued in April 1942, at the request of the Office of Censorship. The 
ban placed on the forwarding of these journals was lifted in Febru- 
ary 1943, and the regular transmission of the Record and the Register 
were resumed. Copies of the back numbers were forwarded, in order 
that the series of the journals would be complete in the files of the 
depositories. The number of copies of each of these journals de- 
livered to the Institution for this interparliamentary exchange was 
reduced from 71 to 58—the number that it was possible to forward 
under the curtailed operations of the Service. 

The Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, Mexico, D. F., was added to 
those countries receiving the Record and Register. A list of the 
countries to which these journals are now being forwarded follows: 


DEPOSITORIES OF CONGRESSIONAL RECORD 
ARGENTINA : 
Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Buenos Aires. 
CAmara de Diputados, Oficina de Informacién Parlamentaria, Buenos Aires. 
Boletin Oficial de la Repfiblica Argentina, Ministerio de Justica e In- 
struccién Publica, Buenos Aires. 
AUSTRALIA: 
Commonwealth Parliament and National Library, Canberra. 
New SoutH WALES: Library of Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney. 
QUEENSLAND: Chief Secretary’s Office, Brisbane. 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Library of Parliament of Western Australia, Perth. 
BRAZIL: 
Biblioteca do Congresso Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. 
AMAZONAS: Archivo, Biblioteca e Imprensa Publica, Man4os. 
Banta: Governador do Estado da Bahia, Sio Salvador. 
Espirito SANtTo: Presidencia do Estado do Espirito Santo, Victoria. 
Rio GRANDE po Sut: “A Federacio,” Porto Alegre. 
Sercirs: Biblioteca Publica do Estado de Sergipe, Aracajt. 
SAo PAvto: Diario Official do Estado de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 61 


BritisH Honpuras: Colonial Secretary, Belize. 
CANADA: 
Library of Parliament, Ottawa. 
Clerk of the Senate, Houses of Parliament, Ottawa. 
CuBa: Biblioteca del Capitolio, Habana, 
GREAT BriraiIn: Library of the Foreign Office, London. 
GUATEMALA: Bibiloteca de la Asamblea Legislativa, Guatemala. 
Harti: Bibliothéque Nationale, Port-au-Prince. 
Honpvuras: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Tegucigalpa. 
Inp1a: Legislative Department, Simla. 
IRIsH FREE STATE: Dail Eireann, Dublin. 
MExico: 
Direccion General de Informaci6n, Secretaria de Gobernaci6én, Mexico, D. F. 
Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, Mexico, D. F. 
AGUASCALIENTES: Gobernador del Estado de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes. 
CAMPECHE: Gobernador del Estado de Campeche, Campeche. 
CuH1apas: Gobernador del Estado de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez. 
CHIHUAHUA: Gobernador del Estado de Chihuahua, Chihuahua. 
CoAHuILA: Periédico Oficial del Estado de Coahuila, Palacio de Gobierno, 
Saltillo. 
Corima: Gobernador del Estado de Colima, Colima. 
DuRANGO: Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Durango, Durango. 
GUANAgUATO: Secretaria General de Gobierno del Estado, Guanajuato. 
Guerrero: Gobernador del Estado de Guerrero, Chilpancingo. 
JALISCO: Biblioteca del Estado, Guadalajara. 
Lower CALirorniA: Gobernador del Distrito Norte, Mexicali. 
Mexico: Gaceta del Gobierno, Toluca. 
MicuoacAn: Secretaria General de Gobierno del Hstado de Michoacan, 
Morelia. 
MorEtos: Palacio de Gobierno, Cuernavaca. 
Nayarit: Gobernador de Nayarit, Tepic. 
NurEvo Le6n: Biblioteca del Estado, Monterrey. 
Oaxaca: Periddico Oficial, Palacio de Gobierno, Oaxaca. 
Pursia: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Puebla. 
QueréTaRO: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Seccién de Archivo, Querétaro. 
San Luis Porosi: Congreso del Estado, San Luis Potosi. 
S1natoa: Gobernador del Estado de Sinaloa, Culiacan. 
Sonora: Gobernador del Estado de Sonora, Hermosillo. 
Taspasco: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Seccién 3a, Ramo de Prensa, 
Villahermosa. 
Tamautipas: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Victoria. 
TraxcaLa: Secretaria de Gobierno del Estado, Tlaxcala. 
VERACRUZ: Gobernador del Estado de Veracruz, Departmento de Goberna- 
cién y Justicia, Jalapa. 
YucaTAn: Gobernador del Estado de Yucatan, Mérida. 
NEw ZEALAND: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 
Prru: Camara de Diputados, Lima. 
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA: 
Library of Parliament, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. 
State Library, Pretoria, Transvaal. 
Uruceuay: Diario Oficial, Calle Florida 1178, Montevideo. 
VENEZUELA: Biblioteca del Congreso, Caracas. 


62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


FOREIGN EXCHANGE AGENCIES 


As a matter of information for those making use of the facilities 
of the International Exchange Service in the distribution of their 
publications in India, it should be stated that since the inauguration 
of the Provincial Autonomy authorized in the Government of India 
Act of 1935 (which did not come into force until several years there- 
after), the Superintendent of Government Printing and Stationery 
in Bombay no longer acts as the distributing exchange agency for 
British India, which work it had conducted since 1918. Except in 
a few instances where the governments of other provinces reimburse 
the Bombay Agency for expenses incurred in transmitting publica- 
tions to governmental offices, the exchange activities of the Super- 
intendent of Government Printing and Stationery now are confined 
to the distribution of packages in the Province of Bombay. To other 
provinces packages are sent direct from Washington by mail. 

There is given below a list of bureaus or agencies to which con- 
signments are forwarded in boxes by freight when the Service is in 
full operation. To all countries not appearing in the list, packages 
are sent to their destinations through the mails. As stated previously, 
shipments are sent during wartime only to the agencies in those coun- 
tries listed on page 57. 


LIST OF AGENCIES 


ALGERIA, Via France. 

ANGOLA, via Portugal. 

AZORES, via Portugal. 

BELcIuM: Service Belge des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Royale de 
Belgique, Bruxelles. 

CANARY ISLANDS, via Spain. 

CuinA: Bureau of International Exchange, Ministry of Education, Chungking. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Service des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque de ]’Assem- 
blée Nationale, Prague 1-79. 

DENMARK: Service Danois des Kchanges Internationaux, Kongelige Danske 
Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen V. 

Eeypr: Government Press, Publications Office, Bulaq, Cairo. 

FINLAND: Delegation of the Scientific Societies of Finland, Kasiirngatan 24, 
Helsinki. 

FRrANcE: Service Francais des changes Internationaux, 110 Rue de Grenelle, 
Paris. 

GERMANY: Amerika-Institut, Universitiitstrasse 8, Berlin, N. W. 7. 

GREAT BRITAIN AND JRELAND: Wheldon & Wesley, 721 North Circular Road, 
Willesden, London, N. W. 2. 

Huneary: Hungarian Libraries Board, Ferenciektere 5, Budapest, IV. 

InpIA: Superintendent of Government Printing and Stationery, Bombay. 

ITALy: Ufficio degli Scambi Internazionali, Ministero dell’Hducazione Nazionale, 
Rome. 

JAPAN: International Exchange Service, Imperial Library of Japan, Uyeno Park, 
Tokyo. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 63 


Latvia: Service des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque d’itat de Lettonie, 
Riga. 

LUXEMBOURG, Via Belgium. 

MAp4AGAscar, via France. 

MaAperrA, via Portugal. 

MoZAMBIQUE, via Portugal. 

NETHERLANDS: International Exchange Bureau of the Netherlands, Royal Li- 
brary, The Hague. 

New SoutH WALES: Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 

Nrw ZEALAND; General Assembly Library, Wellington. 

Norway: Service Norvégien des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque de I’Uni- 
versité Royale, Oslo. 

PALESTINE: Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem. 

PoLANpD: Service Polonais des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Nationale, 
Warsaw. 

PortTuGAL: Seceio de Trocas Internacionaes, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. 

QUEENSLAND: Bureau of Exchanges of International Publications, Chief Secre- 
tary’s Office, Brisbane. 

RUMANIA: Ministére de la Propagande Nationale, Service des Echanges Inter- 
nationaux, Bucharest. 

SoutH AusTRALIA: South Australian Government Exchanges Bureau, Government 
Printing and Stationery Office, Adelaide. 

Spain: Junta de Intercambio y Adquisicién de Libros y Revistas para Bibliote- 
cas Putblicas, Ministerio de Educaci6n Nacional, Avenida Calvo Sotelo, 20. 
Madrid. 

Sweprn: Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. 

SWITZERLAND: Service Suisse des changes Internationaux, Bibliothéque Centrale 
Fédérale, Berne. 

TAsMANIA: Secretary to the Premier, Hobart. 

TourKEY: Ministry of Education, Department of Printing and WHngraving, 
Istanbul. 

Union oF SoutH Arrica: Government Printing and Stationery Office, Cape Town, 
Cape of Good Hope. 

Union or Soviet Soctatist Repustics: International Book Exchange Depart- 
ment, Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Moscow, 56. 

VicTorIA: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 

Yucostavia: Section des Echanges Internationaux, Ministére des Affaires 
Etrangéres, Belgrade. 


C. W. Shoemaker, Chief Clerk of the Exchanges until his retirement 
in November 1941, died on January 6, 1948. Mr. Shoemaker had been 
with the Institution 59 years. He had a translating knowledge of 
many languages and, in addition to his duties as Chief Clerk, served 
as translator for the Smithsonian and its branches. 

Mrs. Mary D. Gass, clerk-stenographer in the International Ex- 
changes for over 18 years, was transferred to the Translating Bureau 
of the Department of State June 21, 1943. 

John W. Cusick, assistant clerk in the International Exchanges, 
was retired November 30, 1942, after having been with this office 
for over 17 years. Prior to his appointment in the Exchanges, he 


64 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


was a guard in the National Museum. Mr. Cusick was a veteran of 
many wars, having served in the Spanish-American War, the Vera 
Cruz Campaign, the Philippine Insurrection, and the First World 
War. Mr. Cusick died at Marathon, N. Y., on June 80, 1948. 

Paul M. Carey, skilled laborer, was granted military leave on 
August 12, 1942, for the purpose of enlisting in the armed forces 
of the United States. 

Leigh Lisker, translator, having been drafted, was granted military 
leave March 22, 1943. 

Respectfully submitted. 

F. E. Gass, Acting Chief Clerk. 
Dr. C. G. Axszort, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 7 
REPORT ON THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions of the National Zoological Park for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1943: 

The regular appropriation made by Congress was $261,510, all of 
which was expended. Legislation that became effective during the 
year provided for salary increase in certain classes and grades and for 
overtime payments for increased hours of work. This resulted in 
a considerable increase in cost for personal services, which, however, 
was largely offset by savings through delay in filling positions or 
failure to fill them, as well as by savings in regular operating costs 
and special items. As a result, the deficiency amounted to only $7,690, 
which was supplied through the Urgent Deficiency Appropriation 
Act, 19438. 

Money was provided in the 1943 Appropriation Act for the construc- 
tion of an incinerator and for the purchase of two trucks, but priorities 
could not be obtained. Plans and specifications were completed for the 
incinerator, and the project will go forward as soon as funds and ma- 
terials are available. 

The primary function of the Zoo is to exhibit a wide variety of 
animal life in the best possible condition, and in order to accomplish 
this aim under wartime conditions it was necessary to curtail all phases 
of maintenance work about the Zoo that could be slighted without 
harm to the animals. In this way it has been possible to keep the 
Zoo going in a satisfactory manner in spite of the shortages of man- 
power, food, and materials incident to wartime. 

Because of the longer evenings due to the change to war time, the 
time of closing the Zoo buildings and gates has been delayed 1 hour, 
the opening hour remaining the same. It is believed that this length- 
ening of hours in the evening has materially contributed to the en- 
joyment of the Zoo by the public. 


PERSONNEL 


As in most other agencies, there has been a considerable personnel 
turn-over at the Zoo, several employees having gone into agencies 
more directly concerned with the war and others having gone else- 

65 


66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


where or retired. In spite of efforts to fill vacancies, many positions 
have remained unfilled for some time. The abolition of the Satur- 
day half-holiday, however, has made it less difficult to maintain fairly 
adequate care of the Zoo. 


MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENTS 


No extensive improvements have been attempted during the year. 
Activities have been confined to maintenance work, and because of 
the difficulty in obtaining critical materials this has frequently been 
of a temporary or makeshift nature. Many things that should be 
done have been postponed until circumstances are more propitious. 


NEEDS OF THE ZOO 


The needs of the Zoo remain the same as outlined in previous re- 
ports. On account of war conditions no request is being made for 
unusual expenditures at this time. 


VISITORS FOR THE YEAR 


The attendance for the year was: 


AULA eee See Eye sera ee 25050002 MN ebRu dh ye ee ee ee 108, 600 
AT SUS ee eee een Bee Q04 C4008 March eee era ee eeeeene 148, 150 
September 2310) 7220s oe P25 800 PAE is he & 2 eee Te este 269, 050 
October—. tes nuee ws prepress & HGS; BOO Mayes s 202") ec core ae 186, 200 
November. © Gate 2 ass TSE ASOOb June +s eee oa 140, 650 
Decemberss22 stew fa Sa 37, 600 ——— 
rLffzis) bz) ek pear ee ENE ee ead ee 70, 950 Motalet == se eee 1, 974, 500 


The sharp curtailment in driving occasioned by gasoline rationing, 
tire mileage restrictions, and the prohibition against pleasure driving 
brought about a drastic reduction in the number of visitors coming 
to the Zoo by automobile, but an increased number of visitors walked 
cr came by bus and streetcar. 

In previous years a census has been made each day of the cars parked 
in the Zoo at about 8 p. m., for the purpose of determining the propor- 
tional attendance by States, Territories, and foreign countries. Owing, 
however, to the almost total cessation of automobile traffic to the Zoo, 
the record from such a census would have been of no value during the 
past year. It may be pointed out that in the previous year District 
of Columbia cars comprised about 39 percent; Maryland, 22 percent; 
Virginia, 15 percent; Pennsylvania, 4 percent; the remaining 20 per- 
cent were from other States, Territories, and foreign countries. 

Prior to the curtailment of automobile and bus travel, numerous 
groups and classes came to the Zoo from a distance of several hundred 
miles. Of course these have been almost completely eliminated, and 
there has been a reduction in the number of groups and classes from 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 67 


Maryland, Virginia, and the District, although this attendance has 
held up fairly well. 

Many of the wartime residents in Washington who have not previ- 
ously had an opportunity to visit a large zoo, now take their rest 
and recreation in the National Zoo. The ease of reaching the Park 
and the fact that it is open every day practically from daylight to 
dark and without cost enable many people to obtain relaxation they 
could not otherwise enjoy. Service men and women constitute a sub- 
stantial proportion of the visitors. It is plain to be seen that many 
of the service people anticipating going overseas are endeavoring to 
learn something of the animal life that they might find in the region 
to which they may be sent. There is also an increasing attendance by 
servicemen recuperating from injuries or sickness. 

Medical groups have come to the Zoo specifically for the purpose of 
studying certain types of animals and to receive instruction regarding 
snakes. The Zoo officials receive many requests from various agencies 
of the Government including the War and Navy Departments for in- 
formation to assist them on biological problems. 

The Zoo continues to be a regular study ground for art and biology 
classes, as well as an important focal point for letters, telephone calls, 
and queries regarding care of animals, their behavior, and methods to 
be followed in preventing or remedying injuries from animals. 


AIR-RAID PRECAUTIONS 


As pointed out in the last report, it is anticipated that in the event 
of air raids the Zoo will be one of the safest places in the city. How- 
ever, plans were made and have been kept up to date for meet- 
ing such contingencies as may arise in the event of air raids or other 
emergencies. 

ACQUISITION OF SPECIMENS 


Specimens are usually acquired by purchase, gift, deposit, exchange, 
natural reproduction, or collecting expeditions by members of the 
Zoo staff. Conditions have prevented travel by the Zoo personnel 
for collecting specimens, and the customary array of animals offered 
for sale by animal dealers has been greatly reduced both in kinds and 
numbers; therefore the importance of gifts and deposits is relatively 
greater than before. The return of members of the armed forces 
from foreign lands has resulted in a gratifying number of gifts of 
smal) animals that have been picked up by these persons as pets or, 
specifically for the Zoo. When Army and Navy personnel evince an 
interest before going abroad in obtaining specimens for the Zoo, efforts 
are made to arrange for importation permits to facilitate entry of the 
animals into this country. Such permits are required by a law which 


68 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


rigidly excludes all animals except under permit in order that this 
country may be properly safeguarded against introduction of animals 
or disease pests that might become serious menaces. 


GIFTS 


Among the gifts to the Zoo, the following may be mentioned as 
particularly prized accessions: 

Mammals.—Two Bailey’s lynx from the Fish and Wildlife Service, 
through Louis H. Laney, Albuquerque, N. Mex.; a white-tailed doe 
from Mrs. A. C. Henry, East Falls Church, Va.; two polar bear cubs 
from the Greenland Administration, through Henrik de Kauffman, 
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary for Denmark in 
Washington, and Tage Nielsen, manager of the Danish Consulate 
General, Greenland Section, New York; a woolly monkey from Mrs. 
Jenny Shifflette, Washington, D. C. 

Birds.—A. Leadbeater’s cockatoo from Judith R. Shearer, Orange, 
Va.; two mute swans from Mrs. Eleanor Patterson, Washington, 
D. C.; a peafowl from H. §. Rawdon, Bethesda, Md.; two Nepal 
kallege from Lowry Riggs, Rockville, Md.; a cheer pheasant from 
Charles Denley, Washington, D. C. 

The Hershey Estates Zoo presented 80 specimens. 

The full list of donors and their gifts follows: 


DONORS AND THEIR GIFTS 


Clinton P. Anderson, Bethesda, Md., red salamander. 

Miss Ann Bartlett, Washington, D. C., worm snake. 

Dr. Paul Bartsch, Washington, D. C., Cuban conure. 

Charles Beck, Fredericksburg, Va., bald eagle. 

Dr. Edgar Beckley, Washington, D. C., snapping turtle. 
Mickey Bing, Washington, D. C., Pekin duck. 

Mrs. Raymond Bittinger, Ridgeley, W. Va., 2 rhesus monkeys. 
Miss M. Bitzmann, Washington, D. C., horned lizard. 

Morris M. Brown, Colonial Beach, Va., ring-billed gull. 

Mrs. L. D. Buford, Washington, D. C., fence lizard. 

B. Harrison Carl, Cumberland, Md., alligator. 

Mrs. H. F. Clark, Washington, D. C., 5 guinea pigs. 

Mrs. H. G. Clark, Washington, D. C., sparrow hawk. 

Miss Arlene Cole, Route 2, Arlington, Va., Pekin duck. 

J. A. Connolly, Washington, D. C., black widow spider. 

L. B. Cronin, College Park, Md., through John N. Hamlet, Cooper’s hawk. 
Mrs. Anna Davis, Baltimore, Md., common marmoset. 
Charles Denley, Washington, D. C., cheer pheasant. 
Marguerite Dent and Patricia Swive, Washington, D. C., Pekin duck. 
Robey Dodson, Washington, D. C., South American gray fox. 
J. R. Earle, Arlington, Va., raccoon. 

Billy and Dick Eckert, Washington, D. C., 2 white rabbits. 

Dr. J ©. Eckhardt, Washington, D. C., zebra finch. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 69 


T, Ellery, Washington, D. C., 4 sparrow hawks. 

Fish and Wildlife Service, through Louis H. Laney, Albuquerque, N. Mex., 
2 Bailey’s lynx. 

Miss Fisher, Washington, D. C., orange-winged parrot. 

P. Ford, Martinsville, Va., albino raccoon. 

J. A. Fowler, Washington, D. C., 2 pilot snakes, black snake, 10 painted turtles, 
4 snapping turtles, 4 spotted turtles, 4 mud turtles, 4 Carolina box tortoises. 

Janet and Lynn Fulmer, Washington, D. C., 2 common rabbits. 

EB. W. Gentz, College Park, Md., 4 flying squirrels. 

G. M. Gooch, Washington, D. C., red-tailed hawk. 

Spencer Gordon, Washington, D. C., 2 angel fish. 

Mrs. Goy, Washington, D. C., gray fox. 

Greenland Administration, through Henrik de Kauffman, Envoy Dxtraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary for Denmark in Washington, and Tage Nielsen, 
manager of the Danish Consulate General, Greenland Section, New York, 
2 polar bear cubs. 

Mrs. F. G. Guttenplan, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

E. H. Halbach, Washington, D. C., opossum. 

Mrs. Haltsman (address unrecorded), common goat. 

Mrs. A. VY. Hanson, Washington, D. C., yellow-naped parrot. 

Maury Hanson, Jr., Bethesda, Md., screech owl. 

Mrs. Haughawout, Colmar Manor, Md., barred owl. 

Mrs. S. T. Hellman, Washington, D. C., 2 guinea pigs. 

Mrs. A. C. Henry, Hast Falls Church, Va., Virginia deer. 

Hershey Hstates Zoo, Hershey, Pa., snowy owl, sea lion, prehensile-tailed por- 
cupine, 7 spotted turtles, 7 snapping turtles, 2 Cumberland terrapins, 10 box 
turtles, 10 wood turtles, 1 South American turtle, 2 hinge-back turtles, 5 
western painted turtles, brown terrapin, American crocodile, 4 ball pythons, 
Curtis or blood python, 2 Surinam toads, 6 red-bellied newts, giant land snail, 
smooth-clawed frog, giant salamander, rainbow boa, Cook’s tree boa, Barbour’s 
map turtle, green tree snake, boa constrictor, 4 Gila monsters, 2 spiny-tailed 
iguanas, common iguana, 2 Brahmany kites, douroucouli. 

Mrs. Hertsch, Cabin John, Md., Javan macaque. 

W. E. Hopper, Arlington, Va., 2 common rabbits. 

Mrs. G. T. Hugo, Mount Rainier, Md., yellow-naped parrot. 

Donald Humphrey, Washington, D. C., yellow chicken snake. 

J. N. Jacobson, Alexandria, Va., alligator. 

Walter Johnson, Washington, D. C., 2 toads. 

William A. Johnson, Washington, D8C., 2 zebra finches. 

Mrs. Victor Kayne, Washington, D. C., 3 horned lizards, 

James Kelly, Washington, D. C., common rabbit. 

James King, Mount Rainier, Md., alligator. 

W. A. King, Brownsville, Tex., 6 blue honeycreepers. 

King-Smith Studio School, Washington, D. C., opossum. 

Rear Admiral Emory §S. Land, Washington, D. C., red-Shouldered hawk. 

Otto Martin Locke, New Braunfels, Tex., 3 nine-banded armadillos, 105 horned 
lizards. 

Jane Lynch, Washington, D. C., 2 alligators. 

Sergeant Lynch, Bolling Field, D. C., nine-banded armadillo. 

J. H. MacElhose, Washington, D. C., R black mollies, 3 guppies, 8 snails, 1 
catfish. 

566766—44——_6 


70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Mrs. M. K. Macknet, Takoma Park, Md., opossum. 

Mrs. Gladys Mahler, Silver Spring, Md., alligator. 

Franklin Mallory, Washington, D. C., 7 common newts. 

Jacob Manoogian, Washington, D. C., opossum. 

Brian McDonald, Arlington, Va., collared turtle dove. 

Mrs. Thomas McVeary, Washington, D. C., yellow-headed parrot. 

Sgt. Wilson McVey, Maryland State Police, sooty mangabey. 

Mrs. John Meatale, Washington, D. C., 2 strawberry finches. 

M. Miller, Washington, D. C., 2 Cooper’s hawks. 

Michael Miller, Washington, D. C., Pekin duck. 

Mrs. H. M. Mitchell, Washington, D. C., 2 Pekin ducks. 

Mrs. T. J. Moody, Leesburg, Va., red fox. 

H. A. Morse, Washington, D. C., 2 guinea pigs. 

Mrs. J. C. Myers, Chevy Chase, Md., Pekin duck. 

Sefior Dr. Don Francisco Castillo Najera, Mexican Ambassador, Washington, 
D. C., capuchin. 

National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Md., woodchuck. 

John Nicholas, Berwyn, Md., rhesus monkey. 

Mrs. R. P. Oliver, Falls Church, Va., weeping capuchin. 

Mrs. Eleanor Patterson, Washington, D. C., 2 mute swans, 17 mallard ducks. 

Senator Claude Pepper, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mrs. M. W. Pettigrew, Washington, D. C., white rabbit. 

Mrs. Polhamus, Chevy Chase, Md., common rabbit. 

Dr. Hans F. Prausnitz, Washington, D. C., false chameleon, soft-shelled turtle, 
common snapping turtle, painted turtle, mud turtle. 

Mrs. A. M. Raeger, Washington, D. C., white-fronted parrot. 

Wayne Randel, Washington, D. C., 2 Central American boas. 

H. 8. Rawdon, Bethesda, Md., peafowl. 

Lowry Riggs, Rockville, Md., 2 Nepal kallege, 4 red jungle fowl, 2 cheer pheasant, 
3 white ring-necked pheasant, 4 silver pheasant, Swinhoe’s pheasant, 2 Japa- 
nese long-tailed fowl, American black bear, alligator. 

Mrs. EH. Rogg, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mrs. V. H. Rohwer, Arlington, Va., grass paroquet. 

Miss D. Roland, Washington, D. C., 2 Pekin ducks. 

Mrs. E. H. Russell, Washington, D. C., diamond-back terrapin. 

Mrs. R. Sadler, Chevy Chase, Md., 2 muscovy ducks. 

Miss Thelma Selle, Washington, D. C., Pekin robin. 

Judith R. Shearer, Orange, Va., Leadbeater’s cockatoo. 

Mrs. Jenny Shifflette, Washington, D. C., woolly monkey. 

Donald G. Shook, National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C., copperhead 

E. W. Sisks, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

C. HE. Smith, Arlington, Va., common marmoset, titi monkey. 

Mrs. Homer R. Spence, Washington, D. C., gray capuchin. 

L. Thomas, McLean, Va., American bittern. 

Robert Thompson, Washington, D. C., great horned owl. 

Dr. R. Truitt, College Park, Md., pied-billed grebe. 

United States Coast Guard, Washington, D. C., 2 red foxes. 

R. J. Werner, Isaac Waiton League, Washington, D. C., mallard duck. 

Mrs. W. H. Wetmore, Washington, D. C., 2 Pekin ducks. 

EB. T. White, Norfolk, Va., screech owl. 

Mrs. H. Whitelow, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mrs. J. H. Wilkins, Washington, D. C., canary. 

Mrs. P. Yahraes, Washington, D. C., grass parakeet. 


‘ 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 71 


Tom Yahraes, Washington, D. C., timber rattlesnake, bull snake. 
Mrs. Gertrude Zeppenfeld, Pittsburgh, Pa., rhesus monkey. 
Cc. D. Zimmerman, Chevy Chase, Md., canary. 


NATURAL REPRODUCTION 


Although the Zoo does not have ideal conditions for animals to 
raise their young in captivity, there is generally a fairly satisfactory 
increase from births and hatchings. During the year 101 mammals 
were born and 83 birds were hatched. Noteworthy among the 
former was a litter of five woolless sheep, an unusually large litter; 
unfortunately, none of the little ones lived. There were also births 
among the reptiles which, however, are not recorded. 

. The births and hatchings are listed below: 


MAMMALS 

Scientific name Common name Number 
Ammotragus lervia. 2 ee AN OL UUO KO pened ee Eee ey Te AT 3 
PAVE UCN OU Gee a aes os rhe tS LE JASIS RO COT MOEN ik ee 1 
LEYOOS ALL AD Ra Oe ee CSU eI alas Be EE 1 
STROM DI SGMe c= ee American ISON. 2s ee ey 2 
PES SME COLLIE Steck eee ree SE De ee IBTIibLSh bark cattleue= ss ae 1 
COMUSATALfALS EEE SEN ae A Texas redzwolis sess eee 7 
Oephatophis niger 22 ae eee Blackiduikerss. 2002 Sia ores 1 
CERUUSHCONCLCNS1 Saar a. aan L es Sean eas SHY icc Pd ie 1 
OBEN GRIN Ise ee Ee ee Redideersss sik alos ee 3 
Ohoeropsis liberiensis____- = Pygmy hippopotamus____--_-___ 2 
Choloepus didactyis2 2 eee Two-toedSloth= {eosin t eee 1 
Cynomys ludovicianus______--=--_____- Prairie dogece 2 era) See Ie 26 
IOXTVIR UNG {a hes So en aa ese es ee ee Hallow .deCerse sitesi) el ee 2 
TORR OVUG) So a e White; tallowsdeera. == ==2>2 Sees 1 
DVCNALGLAGUSHLNIUSE US ae ee Treenkanganoon. 2240 wee 1 
Dolichotis magellanica________________ Patasonianicavy oe eee 2, 
CUI SMONCG ae eats tA de eg ol fPeaD tn net oe Agee Ye Seo LE Bee Nn gt al 
MCU S SUG TUS tein SA Ne ee Pa Bengalstiger isto ete a 
Hemitragus jemiahicus______-__-_-_-.__.__ if BEET] ay Ph os Sa ea a as pl NE 2 
Hippopotamus amphibius__.___________ Eni poOpotamMUs= = aaa. ae ee al 
ECU ANG VON Ee Ai ag ATG) urn ere eh aes ee ee alt 
BTL TIVOLI) CLG OB odin owe he aa ee SAS) 7G sae se eR le ae 1 
PUT OAS ATUL TOL Sao ce sae ee es MOOorAMACAgUCE == wens See ee a 
MCD IVUGUSEAIUGN Cee ee ee eee ee Ra SU eet ee 2S ee eee eee BE ee 5 
Mi OCOSTOTA COUP Uae eee ee ee NOV ae te RE Re LT ee 6 
NID S AL CIUE REGS Serena hes peewee il BAL Leyes Coatimundt. eee Sees 2 
INEOLOMON TORIC COs ee Hloridawoogsrates 22a ea unl 2 
(ER A a eee iWioollessishee ps2 ee 5 
Poephagus grunniens____________-_____ BC A SA Na en a os sa a a 3 
PSCUWCOUS NA CAL Te ee eee ee ae ee ert Bluetsheenessescan see ser DS il 
SUCUMSUCC ee Dacre Se Pee Uae eet Sikaiidec nesses ee eae ek 1 
SU NCCTOSKCO [Cla ae ee es Bes ak Drei Atricany butte Qs 2 ses sae oe 1 
TO DUTAUS RLCTNESETIS ea ees oe eS Be South American tapir_____-_--_- 1 
Urocyon cinereoargenteus_____________ (Goran yart onc ati Si oer Ue 1 


72 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


BIRDS 

Scientific name Common name Number 
Anas piaiynhynchoss a Mailllardiquek: eee ee 23 
ARES AML OTED CSS iis ieleh he ERs ee eet AG Gu CK so ee ae 4 
MONT CONGAENSIGn ee ee ee ee Ganadaigo0se. 22 8 as ea 8 
Branta canadensis minima___________ Cackling goose __________ pi aS 4 
Branta canadensis occidentalis________ White-cheeked goose____________ 12 
Caimnamoschitda=22— 2 ae eee MISCO v ya GKa eee ee nee 5) 
LUCETOMETICONG 22 oe IS EEA Coots) OIE Sikes Vil Li ae 7 
Galularg Callie Se aE A TE Redhunele tow) ps eee 6 
Larus novaehollandiae_____-__________ Siliver:oull= >. #2 nett ee 1 
Nycticorav nycticoraz naevius________ Black-crowned night heron______ 12 
Serius’ canariugi0 S20 Fe he Canary. os Sue a Sieh eee ak 

DEPOSITS 


The more outstandingly interesting and desirable animals that were 
deposited during the year were a spectacled bear, the first ever exhib- 
ited in this Zoo, deposited by Louis Ruhe, Inc.; a beautiful West 
African guenon monkey, which we have so far been unable to identify, 
deposited by H. Allender; a great gray kangaroo deposited by H. 
B. Harris; a wallaby and a West African palm civet deposited by 
H. L. Shaw; a group of four yellow-handed tamarins and seven mar- 
mosets deposited by Miss Martha G. Hunter; a West African crowned 
hawk-eagle deposited by Louis Ruhe, Inc., and another specimen of 
the same species deposited by C. P. Haskins; an electric eel, Indian 
python, and several regal pythons, including one unusually large 
specimen that weighs 320 pounds, all deposited by Clif Wilson. 


EXCHANGES 


Among the more desirable animals received by exchange were two 
cape hyraces obtained from the Philadelphia Zoo, five Dybowsky deer, 
and one tahr goat. 


PURCHASES 


The more outstanding animals obtained by purchase included a 
pair of woolless domestic or Barbados sheep which are natives of West 
Africa; a laughing falcon; and a pair of klipspringers, a remarkable 
little antelope from southern and eastern Africa. 

The Hershey Estates Zoo at Hershey, Pa., which depended for its 
attendance on people coming by automobile, suffered such a sharp 
curtailment in number of visitors that the management decided to 
dispose of most of its stock, which permitted us to obtain from that 
organization a number of interesting and desirable additions. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY To 


REMOVALS 


Reductions in the collection are due to deaths, return of animals 
on deposit, and exchanges. During the year the more noteworthy 
losses by death were: 


MAMMALS 

Avian naluidinosusa. soo) seo Se West African water civet. 

GOMeElUsnUachiGnuse == eee as ee Arabian camel. 

Cephalophus nigrifrons—. 2 ot a Black-fronted duiker. 

Ohoeropsis Wberiensisi Hee eee Pygmy hippopotamus. 

EMytnrocevus pataselle so. A es Patas monkey. 

CLURHETO iS See eh sya is aN ees A ea Bengal tiger (male). 

Hippopotamus amphibius_____--_--_----. Baby hippopotamus. 

ORES LCC ee African porcupine that had been in the 
collection since October 1926. 

VCH COSI CTLS Str mete ek Wanderoo monkey. 

Mandrillus leucophaeus_______________ Drill baboon, in the collection since 
1916. 

Muntiacus sinensis__._._____-__--___-. Chinese barking deer, in the collec- 
tion since 1934. 

INUCTICEDUS COUCONG = 2s Ee Slow loris, received in 1937 from 


Smithsonian Institution-National Geo- 
graphie Society Expedition. 


IRONGOUGU CLs eo see an eee oes See es Sumatran orangutan (“Susie”). 
IPSCUCOIS NAY CULT eee ee eee Blue sheep. 
Traguius favanicus—- eae oe ee Javan mouse deer, in the collection 
since 1937. 
WSS ERLOCLONUS = ee ee eae ee ae Bae Himalayan bear. 
BIRDS 
EQUATE EUG OLR CEN LE ae Slender-billed cockatoo. 
Sagittarius serpentarius____________--- Secretary bird. 
Stephanoaetus coronatus_______------~- Crowned hawk-eagle. 
SEMUTR LO COIN See a aa ee Ostrich, received October 16, 1921, from 


U. S. Poultry Experiment Station, 
Bureau of Animal Industry, Glendale, 


VAlrnonypnuss eee a ani naene condor. 
REPTILES 

TESTU OWEN Ges ae ee eee Galapagos tortoise. 
FISHES 

Electrophorus electricus_________--_--. Electric eel. 


SPECIES NEW TO THE HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION 


Despite the few animals purchased and the factors militating against 
obtaining outstanding additions, the Zoo was fortunate enough to 
obtain six species never before in the collection. These were a spec- 


74 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


tacled bear (Zremarctos ornatus), which inhabits an indefinitely 
outlined range in the northern Andes and is very rare in captivity; a 
pair of klipspringers (Oreotragus saltator), a beautiful little cliff- 
inhabiting antelope that originally ranged from southern Africa to 
Abyssinia; five Dybowsky deer (Sika hortulorum), which inhabit 
Manchuria; one laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans), a beau- 
tifully marked falcon of medium size that inhabits the forested parts 
of tropical America from Mexico to northern Argentina; two quetzals 
(Pharomachrus mocinno), the state bird of Guatemala, which inhabits 
the higher mountains from Guatemala to Panama; and a white 
starling (Graculipica melanoptera), which inhabits Java and is rare 
in captivity. 
Statement of accessions 


How acquired ate Birds | Reptiles Appi, Fishes PN oa Total 
Presentiod 38665 Ble wey ye 64 91 228 20 18 5 426 
Bornorinatched ss) ssaneeee e 101 $5 1 Ue saben) SOR Le 8 al (A PO a PS RE EE 184 
Received in exchange_________- 13 7 DACA (ee a EN ea COU Ne eee esses 37 
IPUTCRASe de eee ae Ee Bh 11 116 On| eee See DAS Se aoe 161 
Onideposites 2. fia. et Lia 31 9 TOM ae eeienien w Yel beeiee., M 53 

SAW a A (petal rte Me has 220 306 265 20 45 5 861 
Summary 

Animals?on thand) duly id942 522 eb oe 3 teh a td BS g es ASL 

ACCESSIONS GUTING «the: year stele tT ee Se ee ee 861 

Total animals in’ collection during, year2== = 2 ee 3, 272 
Removals from collection by death, exchange, and return of animals 

CTRL OOS 1h a a a eae a ee he 837 
Tn collection UTM ey lel 4 =e ae ee ee 2, 485 


Status of collection 


Species Sar Species ss 
Class and sub- Tidivid: Class and sub- grees 

species - species 
IMAM aISE ae Jee eae 204 66451 nsectsson 2s. eee ee 1 100 
Birdseie. nei) eld He Ss a 329 STOTT PIVTOUUSKS fee hen eee 1 1 
Reptilesa ca mane ye 96 280)! Crustaceans.) ethan sae 1 2 
Amphibians s 22s ie’ foe ee 15 69 el 
SHS GS yee weer a wrk rer a a eeu 36 306 ‘Potale sa eee 684 2, 435 
AT ACH TICS! eek eee deere ly 1 i 


Respectfully submitted. 
W. M. Mann, Director. 
Dr. C. G. Asgor, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 8 
REPORT ON THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activ- 
ities of the Astrophysical Observatory, including the Division of 
Astrophysical Research and the Division of Radiation and Organisms, 
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1948: 


DIVISION OF ASTROPHYSICAL RESEARCH 


The study of the solar-constant values published in March 1942 
as table 24, volume 6 of the Annals of the Observatory, confirmed the 
discovery that the variation of the sun’s output, seemingly irregular, 
is really made up of numerous regular periodicities, all being closely 
aliquot parts of 273 months. By combining their influences a pre- 
diction was made of the march of solar variation from 1939 through 
the year 1945. This appears in figure 14 of volume 6 of the Annals. 

In this way it was shown that the years 1940 to 1947 would probably 
be the most interesting and important years to study the sun’s varia- 
tion since the early twenties. As the Smithsonian Astrophysical 
Observatory is the only agency in the world which follows the varia- 
tion of the sun’s output of radiation, it therefore seemed of extreme 
importance to keep the record unbroken through these critical years. 
Hence, despite demands of the war manpower situation, every avail- 
able means has been used to keep the three field observatories at Mon- 
tezuma, Chile, Table Mountain, Calif., and Tyrone, N. Mex., in opera- 
tion. Thus far these efforts have been successful, notwithstanding , 
the loss of three experienced observers from a total field staff of six. 

Considerable progress has been made at Washington in the study 
of short-interval changes of the solar radiation in their relation to 
‘weather. As first shown in Smithsonian publications Nos. 3392 and 
3397 in the year 1936, the sun’s short-interval variations, though aver- 
aging only 0.7 percent, are important elements, even governing ele- 
ments, in weather. The weather effects of individual solar changes 
are found to last at least 2 weeks. These studies of the year 1936 have 
been repeated this year employing the improved and enlarged “solar 
constant” data published as table 24, volume 6 of our Annals. The 
new results are even more convincing than the provisional ones just 
referred to. They have been extended to deal with the weather of 
several cities in different parts of the world, for both temperature 
and barometric pressure. It is expected to publish soon on this 
subject. 

At Washington two computers have continued reductions of solar- 
constant observations, but have not, of course, been able to keep up 
to date with the results, inasmuch as these computers were also called 

75 


76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


on frequently for work relating to war problems assigned by the 
Army and the Navy, or requested by outside agencies engaged in war 
work. It is hoped that with the return to Washington of Mr. Hoover, 
who has been carrying on measures at Tyrone Observatory for 2 years, 
the solar-constant computations can be pushed along more rapidly 
so as to disclose the remarkable changes of solar radiation expected 
for the years 1940 onward, as referred to above. 

Most of the time of Messrs. Abbot, Aldrich, and Kramer has been 
devoted to problems assigned by the war services on which no report 
can be made at this time. 

Personnel.—Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Moore completed their term of 
service at Montezuma. Mr. F. A. Greeley succeeded Mr. Moore in 
June 1948 as field director there with Mrs. F. A. Greeley as his as- 
sistant. Mr. Stanley C. Warner continued as field director at Table 
Mountain with Mr. Kenneth G. Bower as assistant. Mr. W. H. Hoo- 
ver acted as field director at Tyrone Observatory. Mr. Alfred G. 
Froiland, bolometric assistant there, was inducted into the army in 
June 1948, after which Mr. Hoover carried on alone. Mr. Moore will 
take over at Tyrone, and Mr. Hoover will return to Washington. No 
changes in personnel occurred at Washington. 


DIVISION OF RADIATION AND ORGANISMS 
(Report prepared by Dr. Earl S. Johnston, Assistant Director) 


The regular research program of the Division was discontinued 
early in August. Since that date practically the entire time of the 
members of the Division has been directed toward solving problems 
relative to the Nation’s war activities. By far the largest percentage 
of this work has dealt with problems submitted by the Naval Re- 
search Laboratory. Because of the nature of some of this work, it 
is obvious that a detailed report cannot be submitted at this time... 
The personnel and laboratory equipment of the Division was such 
that adaptation to this new work in physics, chemistry, and biology 
was very readily made. However, the efficiency of the Division as a 
unit has been decreased somewhat through loss of personnel. 

At the request of the Annual Review of Biochemistry, a review ar- 
ticle on photosynthesis was prepared last summer by Dr. Johnston of 
the Division and Dr. Jack E. Myers of the University of Texas. This 
paper has now been published in volume 12 of the Review. 

Personnel—On August 1, Mrs. Phyllis W. Prescott, the junior 
clerk-stenographer for the Division, was transferred to the admin- 
istrative office as assistant clerk-stenographer. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C. G. Aszor, Director. 

THe SECRETARY, 

Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 9 
REPORT ON THE LIBRARY 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 
ties of the Smithsonian library for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943: 

Intensification of the war effort, so evident throughout the whole 
Institution, has been both reflected in, and shared by, the library dur- 
ing the difficult year just past. 

The library has been confronted by two major responsibilities that 
have motivated its work: How best to adjust policies and adapt pro- 
cedures to wartime changes and demands, and how to maintain, as far 
as possible, the basic continuity of the collections. 

Urgent as is the first of these, experience during and following the 
First World War has shown that the second cannot be neglected with- 
out serious weakening of the library’s service to the Institution. In) 
wartime, normal growth is inevitably diminished, and a certain amount 
of change of emphasis in acquiring material is necessary and even de- 
sirable, but the responsibility that the library has for implementing 
the deep-rooted and continuing work of a scientific institution cannot 
be overlooked even in an emergency of the present heroic proportions. 


WAR WORK 


Never before in the history of the library have its collections and its 
staff been called upon to give aid in so many different kinds of re- 
search, virtually all of which were concerned in some way with the 
war effort. Regular use of the library by the scientific staff of the 
Institution has been almost entirely in connection with the war, and 
more than 35 of the war agencies have made many direct inquiries, 
have borrowed more than 500 books, and have sent research workers, 
some of them for extended periods of time, to use the collections. 
Indirectly too, through the use of the library by the staff of the Ethno- 
geographic Board, still other of the war agencies have been repre- 
sented. Rich in certain kinds of geographical and related material, 
and in ethnological works, the branch libraries of the National Museum 
and the Bureau of American Ethnology especially, have been con- 
stantly visited and called upon by war workers. 

It has been most gratifying to find that the Institution has not in- 
frequently been able to supply data of urgent importance that could 
not be found elsewhere. 

77 


78 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The index of foreign geographical illustrations begun last year as 
a special war service and originally planned to cover only the publi- 
cations of the Institution itself was later enlarged, at the request of 
the Smithsonian War Committee, to include files of selected journals 
on special subjects containing incidental geographical illustrations 
likely to be overlooked in any routine search for pictures. The selec- 
tion of these journals was made by the scientific staff of the Institution 
and the indexing was done in their offices, the library serving as the 
coordinator and keeper of the file, which now contains more than 
12,000 entries. 

As another aid to the war agencies in making use of the library, 
the librarian prepared a brief account of its resources, mimeographed 
copies of which were distributed to key personnel in Washington and 
elsewhere by the Ethnogeographic Board. 

The cordial response of the whole Institution to the library’s plea 
for books in the Nation-wide Victory book drive for men and women 
in the armed services, is worthy of record. More than 500 fine clean 
copies of highly readable contemporary books were contributed. 

It may be of interest to note here the transfer to the Library of 
Congress of an uncataloged collection of miscellaneous war pamphlets 
accumulated by the library during the First World War. This col- 
lection, numbering some 3,000 pieces, largely the so-called ephemera 
of the period, though valuable as historical source material, had no 
direct bearing on the scientific work of the Institution. 


ACCESSIONS 


Receipt of foreign publications dropped somewhat, but not nearly 
so sharply as during the preceding year, after shipments from enemy 
and occupied countries ceased. Through the International Exchange 
Service, 855 packages, or only 70 fewer than last year, were delivered. 
Even this decline was more apparent than real, for a good: many 
foreign serials came directly by mail. Fortunately there have been 
comparatively few actual losses, and not many prolonged delays in 
the arrival of the most important of those scientific serials that are still 
being published in the allied and neutral countries, though some of 
the foreign institutions and societies are postponing shipment of their 
publications until after the war. The maintenance of both the quan- 
tity and quality of scientific publication at a high level among our 
war-torn allies abroad is worthy of remark. 

The publication and receipt of domestic scientific serials continued 
to be practically normal. 

In the Museum library an accession of special importance was a 
selection of 250 books and 2,300 separates and pamphlets, mostly on 
the subject of reptiles, from the library of the late Dr. Leonhard 
Stejneger. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 79 


Received in the sectional library of the division of fishes, by trans- 
fer from the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the 
Interior, was the large collection of manuscript records of the dredg- 
ing and hydrographic stations of the U. S. F. 8. S. Albatross and 
other fisheries vessels. 

By regular and special exchange, and by purchase, considerable 
progress has been made in filling gaps in the serial sets, some of 
them of long standing, and in strengthening certain collections on 
special subjects, for example, the published results of scientific sur- 
veys and travels. The importance of such material, always apparent, 
especially in connection with the work of the curators in the Museum, 
has been doubly emphasized by the increased wartime demand for it 
both within and from outside the Institution. 

One of the larger special exchanges of duplicates, with the Marine 
Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, yielded a good many parts 
of periodicals needed in the Museum library, while from Cooper 
Union came 35 publications on art for the National Collection of Fine 
Arts library. 

Among purchases, wartime deviations from the normal have been 
the unusually large number of requests for atlases, descriptive geog- 
raphies, and foreign-language dictionaries. 


GIFTS 


There have been a number of especially notable gifts during the 
year. One that is invaluable in itself, and noteworthy as well for 
being the library’s first considerable accession of microfilmed material, 
was the very generous gift of the Linnean Society of London of the 
records of its Linnean collections and manuscripts, the copying of 
which was made possible by a grant to the society from the Car- 
negie Corporation. This is one of two sets deposited in American 
libraries, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University having re- 
ceived the other. We are much indebted to Dr. Elmer D. Merrill, 
the administrator of botanical collections there, for his good offices 
in arranging the whole matter. All the actual specimens in the 
Linnean herbarium are said to be covered in the 60,000 exposures of 
the set, as well as records of the mollusks, fishes, and insects, of vari- 
ous manuscripts, and those of Linneaus’ own publications to which 
he had added corrections and emendations. 

To accompany the very fine collection of arms and armor given by 
him to the Museum, Ralph G. Packard presented also his collection of 
350 books on the subject, many of them rare and beautiful volumes. 

The sectional library of the division of marine invertebrates received 
another special collection of great usefulness in connection with speci- 
mens previously received from the donor, by the bequest of the late 


80 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Dr. Frank Smith of his working library of oligochaete literature, 
1,103 pieces in all. 

A unique gift to the sectional library of the division of minerals was 
a five-volume set of phetomiergrapls of meteoric irons presented by 
Dr. Stuart H. Perry. 

As always, the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, and many other 
members of the Smithsonian staff made generous contributions of 
books and papers. From the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science came 578 publications. Among other donors were 
the American Association of Museums, the American Committee for 
International Wild Life Protection, the American Wildlife Institute, 
Barton A. Bean, Mrs. Arthur 8. Blum, Hon. Usher L. Burdick, the 
Detroit News, Haydn T. Giles, Daniel C. Haskell, J. Cramer Hudson, 
the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen, Mrs, Vera 
F. Lewis, Fritz Lugt, Dr. John P. Marble, Dr. Salvador Massip, Dr. 
Riley D. Moore, Olaf Nylander, W. J. Orchard, Hon. Chase S. Osborn 
and Miss Stella Brunt Osborn, the Pan American Union, the Pennsyl- 
vania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy 
and Science, Dr. A. E. Porsild, Dr. L. A. White. 


CATALOGING 


Cataloging of the regular inflow of current accessions was excep- 
tionally well kept up under the handicap of the understaffing of the 
catalog division, but there was no time that could be devoted either 
to the older material so badly in need of attention, or even to some 
of the larger recent gifts of special collections. There are at least 
15,000 uncataloged volumes in special collections scattered throughout 
the Institution, while in the Museum library many more thousands 
of volumes have never been cataloged by subject and are represented 
in the catalog only by antiquated author cards. The difficulty, or 
actual loss of use of much important material by this lack of adequate 
cataloging is a serious matter, and one that should receive first con- 
sideration in post-war planning of the library’s work. 


PERSONNEL 


Changes in personnel were the retirement for disability of Miss 
Marian W. Seville, senior library assistant, on August 31, 1942, after 
many years of faithful service; the appointment of Miss Minna Gill 
as assistant librarian in charge of the catalog, on September 2, 1942; 
the appointment of Mrs. Daisy F. Bishop as under library assistant on 
February 17, 1943, and the resignation of Miss Marion Blair, junior 
clerk-typist, on April 21, 1943. Since January 21, 1948, W. B. Green- 
wood has been absent ree the library of the Buseve of American 
Xthnology on military duty. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 81 


There were a number of promotions and reassignments to duties 
among the staff. Miss Anna Moore Link was given charge of the 
National Collection of Fine Arts library and Miss Elizabeth G. Mose- 
ley was promoted to Miss Link’s former position in charge of the 
serial collections in the Museum library ; Mrs. Hope H. Simmons was 
promoted to be assistant librarian in charge of accessions and Miss 
Marjorie R. Kunze was promoted to be chief assistant in the accessions 
division. 

The loss of one position and the time lag in filling other vacancies 
have been serious obstacles in the way of keeping work up to date. The 
fine spirit of the whole staff in meeting emergencies, in taking on extra 
work, and in accepting temporary assignments to new or unaccustomed 
duties is much to be commended. 


STATISTICS 
Accessions 
Approxi- Approxi- 
Volumes mate Volumes| mate 
and pam-| holdings and pam-| holdings 
phlets June 30, phlets | June 30, 
1943 9 
Astrophysical Observatory --- 276 10, 675 || National Museum__-_--------- 3, 680 226, 967 
eee of American Ethnol- National Zoological Park- --__- 102 4, 043 
1 ta Me eR ER 321 33,811 || Radiation and Organisms---- 1 619 
rere Gallery of Art.......--- 165 16, 531 || Smithsonian Deposit--------- 1,051 571, 028 
Taney Aeronautical Li- i sys Smithsonian Office____------- 227 31, 282 
32 Rea EUR Bos » 592 | 
National Collection of Fine TO tal tee oe haces ver 6,955 | 1907, 645 
a) NaF bp a Eo a es aa ee 1, 103 9, 097 


1 Neither incomplete volumes of periodicals nor separates and reprints from periodicals are included 
in these figures. 


Hzchanges 
Newiexchanves arranged a0. 02 2 ss ee ee ee ee eS 159 
88 of these were assigned to the Smithsonian Deposit. 
SEN VEIT SRT OCC ELV (eee oe ec UN een eR eNO So ee 3, 631 
549 of these were obtained to fill gaps in the Smithsonian Deposit 
sets. 
Cataloging 
Volumes andinamphiets cataloged2- 2 bo. 5, 012 
@ardsiiledcin catalogs;and shel telistse =) ae ee en 80, 635 
Periodicals 
PeMomienl parts CHtered. 26 men yes Ae Ree ee oes 11, 756 
Circulation 
Roane oft oolkssanG period Cal sae = ee ba ee ee ee ee 11, 236 


This figure does not include the very considerable intramural circu- 
lation of books and periodicals assigned to sectional libraries for filing, 
of which no count is kept. 


Binding 
Volumes, Sentutor thes bindery. 2 a eee ee ee 2,135 
Respectfully submitted. 
Lema F. Crarn, Librarian. 
Dr. C. G. Axssor, 


Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 10 
REPORT ON PUBLICATIONS 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the publica- 
tions of the Smithsonian Institution and the Government branches 
under its administrative charge during the year ended June 30, 1948: 

The Institution published during the year 13 papers in the Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, and title page and table of contents 
of volumes 101 and 103; 10 papers in the War Background Studies 
series; 1 Annual Report of the Board of Regents and pamphlet copies 
of 23 articles in the Report appendix, and 1 Annual Report of the 
Secretary; 2 special publications, and reprints of 2 volumes of the 
Smithsonian’s series of tables. 

The United States National Museum issued 1 Annual Report; 25 
Proceedings papers; 3 Bulletins; 1 separate paper in the Bulletin 
series of Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. 

The Bureau of American Ethnology issued 1 Annual Report and 8 
Bulletins. 

Of the publications there were distributed 194,057 copies, which 
included 21 volumes and separates of the Smithsonian Contributions 
to Knowledge, 37,732 volumes and separates of the Smithsonian Mis- 
cellaneous Collections, 24,986 volumes and separates of the Smith- 
sonian Annual Reports, 60,464 War Background Studies papers, 
2,529 Smithsonian special publications, 55,631 volumes and separates 
of National Museum publications, 10,793 publications of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology, 28 reports on the Harriman Alaska Expedi- 
tion, 36 Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory, and 1,810 reports 
of the American Historical Association. 


SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 


There were issued 2 papers and title page and table of contents of 
volume 101, 1 paper comprising volume 102, 10 papers and title page 
and table of contents of volume 103, as follows: 


VOLUME 101 


No. 16. The snow and ice algae of Alaska, by Erzsébet Kol. 36 pp., 6 pls., 5 
figs. (Publ. 3683.) September 19, 1942. 

No. 18. A new species of sand bug, Blepharipoda doelloi, from Argentina, by 
Waldo L. Schmitt. 10 pp.,1 pl. (Publ. 3687.) August 10, 1942. - 

Title page and table of contents, (Publ. 3695.) October 27, 1942. 


82 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 83 


VOLUME 102 


Compendium and description of the West Indies, by Antonio Vazquez de 
Espinosa, translated by Charles Upson Clark. 862 pp. (Publ. 3646.) September 
1, 1942. r 


VOLUME 1038 


No. 1. Distribution and variation of the Hawaiian tree snail Achatinella 
apexfulva Dixon in the Koolau Range, Oahu, by d’Alté A. Welch. 236 pp., 
12 pls., 8 figs. (Publ. 3684.) December 16, 1942. ‘ 

No. 2. The skeleto-muscular mechanisms of the honey bee, by R. H. Snodgrass. 
120 pp., 32 figs. (Publ. 3688.) September 30, 1942. 

No. 3. A revision of the Indo-Chinese forms of the avian genus Prinia, by H. G. 
Deignan. 12 pp. (Publ. 3689.) September 1, 1942. 

No. 4. Archeological and geological investigations in the San Jon District, 
eastern New Mexico, by Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr. 30 pp., 9 pls., 3 figs. (Publ. 
38692.) October 12, 1942. 

No. 5. New Upper Cambrian trilobites, by Charles E. Resser. 186 pp., 21 pls. 
(Publ. 3693.) October 21, 1942. 

No. 6. On the preparation and preservation of insects, with particular refer- 
ence to Coleoptera, by J. Manson Valentine. 16 pp., 5 figs. (Publ. 3696.) 
November 21, 1942, 

No. 7. The musculature of the labrum, labium, and pharyngeal region of adult 
and immature Coleoptera, by Carl Kester Dorsey. 42 pp., 24 pls. (Publ. 3697.) 
January 20, 1943. 

No. 8. The 1914 tests of the Langley “aerodrome,” by C. G. Abbot. 8 pp., 1 fig. 
(Publ. 3699.) October 24, 1942. 

No. 9. Mystacocarida, a new order of Crustacea from intertidal beaches in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, by Robert W. Pennak and Donald J. Zinn. 11 pp., 
2pls. (Publ. 3704.) February 238, 1948. 

No. 10. A remarkable reversal in the distribution of storm frequency in the 
United States in double Hale solar cycles, of interest in long-range forecasting, 
by C. J. Kullmer. 20 pp., 19 figs., 10 storm-frequency year maps. (Publ. 3729.) 
April 5, 1943. 

Title page and table of contents. (Publ. 3731.) June 9, 1943. 


Additional copies of the following volume were printed: 


VOLUME 86 


Smithsonian Meteorological Tables. Fifth Revised Edition. First Reprint. 
Ixxxvi+282 pp. (Publ. 3116.) 


WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES 


In the new series of Smithsonian publications, War Background 
Studies, Nos. 3-12, inclusive, were issued during the year. In order 
to list all the papers in this series, Nos. 1 and 2 are included, although 
they were issued toward the end of the previous fiscal year. Nos. 
13-16 are also listed, although they had not actually been issued at 
the close of the year. 


No. 1. Origin of the Far Hastern civilizations : A brief handbook, by Carl 
Whiting Bishop. 53 pp., 12 pls., 21 figs. (Publ. 3681.) June 10, 1942. 


84 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


No. 2. The evolution of nations, by John R. Swanton. 23 pp. (Publ. 3686.) 
June 24, 1942. 

No. 8. The peoples of the Soviet Union, by AleS Hrdlitka. 29 pp. (Publ. 3690.) 
July 15, 1942. 

No. 4. Peoples of the Philippines, by Herbert W. Krieger. 86 pp., 24 pls., 4 figs. 
(Publ. 3694.) November 18, 1942. 

No. 5. The natural-history background of camouflage, by Herbert Friedmann. 
17 pp., 16 pls. (Publ. 3700.) December 11, 1942. 

No. 6. Polynesians—explorers of the Pacific, by J. E. Weckler, Jr. 7 pp., 
20 pls., 2 figs. (Publ. 3701.) January 13, 1948. 

No. 7. The Japanese, by John F. Embree. 42 pp., 16 pls., 3 figs. (Publ. 3702.) 
January 23, 1943. 

No. 8, Siam—land of free men, by H. G. Deignan. 18 pp., 8 pls., 1 fig. (Publ. 
3703.) February 5, 1943. 

No. 9. The native peoples of New Guinea, by M. W. Stirling. 25 pp., 28 pls., 
1 fig. (Publ. 3726.) February 16, 1943. 

No. 10. Poisonous reptiles of the world: A wartime handbook, by Doris M. 
Cochran. 37 pp., 17 pls., 2 figs. (Publ. 3727.) March 19, 1943. 

No. 11. Egypt and the Suez Canal, by Frank H. H, Roberts, Jr. 68 pp., 25 pls., 
1 fig. (Publ. 3728.) March 381, 1948. 

No. 12. Are wars inevitable? by John R. Swanton. 36 pp. (Publ. 3730.) 
May 11, 1943. 

(Issued after the close of the fiscal year) 


No. 138, Alaska: America’s continental frontier outpost, by Ernest P. Walker. 
57 pp., 21 pls., 2 figs. (Publ. 3783.) July 8, 1943. 

No. 14. Islands and peoples of the Indies, by Raymond Kennedy. 66 pp., 
21 pls., 7 figs. (Publ. 3734.) August 5, 1943. 

No. 15. Iceland and Greenland, by Austin H. Clark. 103 pp., 21 pls., 2 figs. 
(Publ. 3735.) August 19, 1948. 

No. 16. Island peoples of the western Pacific: Micronesia and Melanesia, by 
Herbert W. Krieger. 104 pp., 21 pls., 2 figs. (Publ. 3737.) September 15, 1943. 


SMITHSONIAN ANNUAL REPORTS 


Report for 1941.—The complete volume of the Annual Report of 
the Board of Regents for 1941 was received from the Public Printer 
in September 1942. 


Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution show- 
ing the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution for the year 
ended June 80, 1941. xiii++596 pp., 121 pls., 17 figs. (Publ. 3651.) 


The general appendix contained the following papers: 


What lies between the stars? by Walter S. Adams. 

Artificial converters of solar energy, by H. C. Hottel. 

The new frontiers in the atom, by Ernest O. Lawrence. 

Science shaping American culture, by Arthur H. Compton. 
Mathematics and the sciences, by J. W. Lasley, Jr. 

The role of science in the electrical industry, by M. W. Smith. 
The new synthetic textile fibers, by Herbert R. Mauersberger. 
Plastics, by Gordon M. Kline. 

Vitamins and their occurrence in foods, by Hazel E. Munsell. 
Science and human prospects, by Eliot Blackwelder. 

Iceland, land of frost and fire, by Vigfus Hinarsson. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 85 


The genes and the hope of mankind, by Bruce Bliven. 

Care of captive animals, by Ernest P. Walker. 

The influence of insects on the development of forest protection and forest 
management, by F. C. Craighead. 

Growth hormones in plants, by Kenneth V. Thimann. 

Useful algae, by Florence Meier Chase. 

The excavations of Solomon’s seaport: Ezion-geber, by Nelson Glueck. 

Decipherment of the linguistic portion of the Maya hieroglyphs, by Ben- 
jamin Lee Whorf. 

Contacts between Iroquois herbalism and colonial medicine, by William 
N. Fenton. 

The study of Indian music, by Frances Densmore. 

Snake bites and the Hopi Snake Dance, by M. W. Stirling. 

The Eskimo child, by AleS Hrdli¢ka. 

Wings for transportation (Recent developments in air transportation 
equipment), by Theodore P. Wright. 


Report for 1942.—The Report of the Secretary, which included the 
financial report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents, 
and which will form part of the Annual Report of the Board of Re- 
gents to Congress, was issued in January 1943. 

Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and financial report of 
the executive committee of the Board of Regents for the year ended June 30, 
1942. iii+112 pp. 2pls. (Publ. 3698.) 

The Report volume, containing the general appendix, was in press 
at the close of the year. 


SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS 


Songs from the Iroquois Longhouse: Program notes for an album of American 
Indian music from the eastern woodlands (issued by the Library of Congress), 
by William N. Fenton. 34 pp., 9 pls. (Publ. 3691.) September 11, 1942. 

The Smithsonian Institution and the United States Natiowal Museum welcome 
the members of our armed forces. 4 pp. April 1943. 

The following special publication was reprinted: 

Smithsonian Mathematical Tables—hyperbolic functions, prepared by George 
F. Becker and C. EH. Van Orstrand. Fifth reprint. lii+321 pp. (Publ. 1871.) 
August 21, 1942. 


PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


The editorial work of the National Museum has continued during 
the year under the immediate direction of the editor, Paul H. Oehser. 
There were issued 1 Annual Report, 25 Proceedings papers, 3 Bulle- 
tins, and 1 separate paper in the Bulletin series of Contributions from 
the United States National Herbarium, as follows: 


MUSEUM REPORT 


Report on the progress and condition of the United States National Museum 
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1942. iii+118 pp. January 1943. 


PROCEEDINGS: VOLUME 88 


Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i—viii, 587-615. August 18, 1942. 
566(66—44——7 


86 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


VOLUME 89 


Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i-ix, 583-620. November 28, 
1942. 
VOLUME 90 


Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i-vii, 553-581. December 18, 
1942. 
VOLUME 91 


No. 3131. Catalog of human crania in the United States National Museum 
collections : Eskimo in general, by AleS Hrdlitka. Pp. 169-429, fig. 39. August 1, 
1942. 

No. 3132. The species of Aegla, endemic South American fresh-water crusta- 
ceans, by Waldo L. Schmitt. Pp. 481-520, figs. 40-64, pls. 25-28. August 18, 
1942. 

VOLUME 92 


No. 8147. New species of bark beetles (Pityophthorini) from Mexico and tropi- 
cal America (Coleoptera, Scolytidae), by M. W. Blackman. Pp. 177-228, pls. 
20-23. November 25, 1942. 

No. 3148. Osteology of Polyglyphanodon, an Upper Cretaceous lizard from Utah, 
by Charles W. Gilmore. Pp. 229-265, figs. 16-36, pls. 24-26. October 138, 1942. 

No. 3149. Notes and new species of Microlepidoptera from Washington State, 
by J. F. Gates Clarke. Pp. 267-276, pls. 27-82. October 138, 1942. 

No. 3150. The genotypes of some of Ashmead’s genera of ichneumon-flies, by 
R. A. Cushman. Pp. 277-289. October 8, 1942. 

No. 3151. New Neotropical insects of the apterygotan family Japygidae, by 
H. BE. Ewing and Irving Fox. Pp. 291-299, pls. 33, 34. October 1, 1942. 

No. 3152. The fresh-water fishes of Liberia, by Leonard P. Schultz. Pp. 301- 
348, fig. 37, pls. 35, 36. November 13, 1942. 

No. 3153. Mexican herpetological miscellany, by Hobart M. Smith. Pp. 349- 
895, fig. 38, pl. 37. November 5, 1942. 

No. 8154. Revision of the genus Phloeosinus Chapuis in North America (Coleop- 
tera, Scolytidae), by M. W. Blackman. Pp. 397-474, pls. 88-41. December 21, 
1942. 

No. 3155. The Late Cenozoic vertebrate faunas from the San Pedro Valley, Ariz., 
by C. Lewis Gazin. Pp. 475-518, figs. 39-47, pls. 42, 43. December 10, 1942. 

No. 8156. The type species of the genera and subgenera of bees, by Grace A. 
Sandhouse. Pp. 519-619. March 5, 1943. 


VOLUME 93 


No. 3157. The Nearctic species of parasitic flies belonging to Zenillia and allied 
genera, by Wendell F. Sellers. Pp.1-108. January 19, 1943. 

No. 3158. A new fossil reptile from the Upper Cretaceous of Utah, by Charles 
W. Gilmore. Pp. 109-114, figs. 1-5. December 12, 1942. 

No. 3159. Some American geometrid moths of the subfamily Ennominae here- 
tofore associated with or closely related to Hllopia Treitschke, by Hahn W. Capps. 
Pp. 115-151, pls. 1-10. February 24, 1943. 

No. 3160. Skeletal remains with cultural associations from the Chicama, Moche, 
and Vir Valleys, Peru, by T. D. Stewart. Pp. 153-185, pls. 11-18. January 23, 
1943. 

No. 3161. New marine mollusks from the Antillean region, by Harald A. Rehder. 
Pp. 187-208, pls. 19, 20. January 20, 1943. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 87 


No. 3162. A new pest of Albizzia in the District of Columbia (Lepidoptera: 
Glyphipterygidae), by J. F. Gates Clarke. Pp. 205-208, pls. 21-25. March 9, 
1943. 

No. 3163. Osteology of Upper Cretaceous lizards from Utah, with a descrip- 
tion of a new species, by Charles W. Gilmore. Pp. 209-214, figs. 6-10. January 
19, 1943. 

No. 8164. The birds of southern Veracruz, Mexico, by Alexander Wetmore. 
Pp. 215-340, fig. 11, pls. 26-28. May 25, 1943. 

No. 3165. New genera and species of bark beetles of the subfamily Micracinae 
(Scolytidae, Coleoptera), by M. W. Blackman. Pp. 341-865, pls. 29-30. March 
22, 1943. 

No. 3166. Notes on some barnacles from the Gulf of California, by Dora 
Priaulx Henry. Pp. 367-3873, pl. 31. May 3, 1943. 


BULLETINS 


No. 180. Fishes of the Phoenix and Samoan Islands collected in 1939 during 
the expedition of the U. S. S. Bushnell, by Leonard P. Schultz. x+3816 pp., 27 
figs., 9 pls. January 20, 1943. 

No. 181. The cyclophorid operculate land mollusks of America, by Carlos de la 
Torre, Paul Bartsch, and Joseph P. E. Morrison. iv+306 pp., 42 pls. August 
21, 1942. 

No. 182. Monograph of the West Indian beetles of the family Staphylinidae, 
by Richard HE. Blackwelder. viii+658 pp., 3 figs. 19 maps. January 27, 1943. 


CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL HERBARIUM 


VOLUME 28 


Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i-xii, 677-694. December 16, 
1942. 


PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


The editorial work of the Bureau has continued under the imme- 
diate direction of the editor, M. Helen Palmer. During the year 
there were issued 1 Annual Report and 3 Bulletins, as follows: 


REPORT 


Fifty-ninth annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1941-42. 
12 pp. January 30, 1948. 


BULLETINS 


132. Source material on the history and ethnology of the Caddo Indians, by 
John R. Swanton. 332 pp., 19 pls., 5 figs. January 16, 1943. 

134. The native tribes of eastern Bolivia and western Matto Grosso, by Alfred 
Métraux. 182 pp., 5 pls., 1 fig. November 23, 1942. 

135. Origin.myth of Acoma and other records, by Matthew W. Stirling. 128 
pp., 17 pls., 8 figs. December 3, 1942. 


REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 


The annual reports of the American Historical Association are 
transmitted by the Association to the Secretary of the Smithsonian 


88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Institution and are communicated by him to Congress, as provided by 
the act of incorporation of the Association. The following reports 
were issued this year: . 

Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1936. 
Volume 3. Instructions to the British Ministers to the United States, 1791-1812. 

Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1937. 
Volume 2. Writings in American History, 1937, 19388. 

Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the year 1940. 
Proceedings. 

Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1941. Vol- 
ume 1. Proceedings; private letters from the British Embassy in Washington to 
the Foreign Secretary, Lord Granville, 1880-85 ; manuscript accessions. Volume 2. 
Talleyrand in America as a financial promoter, 1794-96. Volume 3. List of doc- 
toral dissertations in history now in progress at universities in the United States 
and the Dominion of Canada. 


The following were in press at the close of the fiscal year: Annual 
Report for 1942, volume 1 (Proceedings and list of members) ; volume 
2 (Letters from the Berlin Embassy) ; volume 3 (The quest for politi- 
cal unity in world history). 


REPORT OF THD NATIONAL SOCIETY, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION 


The manuscript of the Forty-fifth Annual Report of the National 
Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, was transmitted to 
Congress, in accordance with law, December 1, 1942. 


ALLOTMENTS FOR PRINTING 


The congressional allotments for the printing of the Smithsonian 
Annual Reports to Congress and the various publications of the Gov- 
ernment bureaus under the administration of the Institution were 
virtually used up at the close of the year. The appropriation for the 
coming year ending June 30, 1944, totals $88,500, allotted as follows: 


fSheaunelokc(opens Wall Goksjohmb ier koy oles Sy ue eee es eS eel a $16, 000 
IN atiomale Mise wri 2 sels RS a Lend ET RS 43, 000 
Bureau, of American Ethnology... 000740 eee eee 17, 480 
Nationals @ollectiom sof Rime Ais tea emcee eee ena neon 500 
International Dxchanees = 2 wee Ree 200 
NationalsZo0logical PRarkezie. Sete ve Merk ie seh sale eee 200 
Astrophysical MObservalto tyes. mies lee a epee Aen 500 
American HistoricaleAssociations 225 sure si sae eee 10, 620 

To Gay rts serch 9 ao OE rel wi Diy aye ds. Tye ay oats da Ba eee at . 88, 500 


Respectfully submitted. 
W. P. Trur, Chief, Editorial Division. 
Dr. C. G. Axszor, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 
THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITH- 
SONIAN INSTITUTION 


FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1943 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 

Your executive committee respectfully submits the following report 
in relation to the funds of the Smithsonian Institution, together with 
a statement of the appropriations by Congress for the Government 
bureaus in the administrative charge of the Institution. 


SMITHSONIAN ENDOWMENT FUND 


The original bequest of James Smithson was £104,960 8s. 6d.—$508,318.46. Re- 
funds of money expended in prosecution of the claim, freights, insurance, ete., 
together with payment into the fund of the sum of £5,015, which had been withheld 
during the lifetime of Madame de la Batut, brought the fund to the amount of 
$550,000. 

Since the original bequest the Institution has received gifts from various sources 
chiefly in the years prior to 1893, the income from which may be used for the 
general work of the Institution. These are invested and stand on the books of 
the Institution as follows: 


Avery, Robert S. and Lydia T., bequest fund____________.____ $50, 498, 44 
Endowment fund, from gifts, income, ete___________________ 272, 549, 65 
abel sry Si beg mes tit urm ct eae ea ee ae ea ee 500. 00 
Hachenberg, George P. and Caroline, bequest fund__________ 3, 942. 03 
LMG OTM: PATE, CULES eh erg ra Cl ee ee EB 2, 895. 70 
Henry. Carolnes bequest tung sn ea 1, 185. 46 
18 (aya kes Fetrayst. 4 Wh ayoy Ta ESV E on iy ag ee ake oat a ee 145, 623. 83 
JOSEY evan ys ib WO Lamalisteane ENR Tat ae he ULL eel a nee Me) Cape rl Nae A ea iat 728, 836. 59 
Rhees, William Jones; bequest fund_--____~ 4 -_-_ 1, 053. 72 
Santord..George He meniorial fundss 22s eee 1, 972. 56 
Witherspoon, Thomas A., memorial fund___--__--_____-____ 126, 491. 58 
STOEL ER Lt Pet Ta Chat eV seam a RIE I CET eae aE 1, 400. 00 

Total endowment for general work of the Institution______ 1, 336, 949. 55 


The Institution holds also a number of endowment gifts, the income 
of each being restricted to specific use. These are invested and stand 
on the books of the Institution as follows: 


Abbott, William L., fund, bequest to the Institution____-__________ $104, 010. 11 
Arthur, James, fund, income for investigations and study of the sun 
AN GSLECE UTE OTL WHC SUE eee ee ese re a OS 39, 200. 44 


89 


90 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Bacon, Virginia Purdy, fund, for a traveling scholarship to investi- 


gate fauna of countries other than the United States____________ $49, 107. 53 
Baird, Lucy H., fund, for creating a memorial to Secretary Baird__ 17, 942. 00 
Barstow, Frederic D., fund, for purchase of animals for the Zoolog- 

TCaHEP a rey Scat See RE a os Sie a A eed oon dd Bed ae Ue BI 745. 61 
Canfield Collection fund, for increase and care of the Canfield col- 

lection ,of sminetals2.- 22S w ee ds be Ee Rs ee 37, 488. 80 
Casey, Thomas L., fund, for maintenance of the Casey collection 

and promotion of researches relating to Coleoptera_____________ 8, 990. 30 
Chamberlain, Francis Lea, fund, for increase and promotion of 

Isaac Lea collection of gems and mollusks______________________ 27, 602. 19 
Hillyer, Virgil, fund, for increase and care of Virgil Hillyer collec- 

tion: OL MiehtingvobJeGis sas ae: eas ee ar ee IG ais eae ee 6, 441. 94 
Hitchcock, Dr. Albert S., Library fund, for care of Hitchcock 

Agrostologicall Mul brary owe ve ase eaten bee Nes eM beet nee See ee 1, 448. 66 


Hodgkins fund, specific, for increase and diffusion of more exact 

knowledge in regard to nature and properties of atmospheric 

UTS a mes ee es Bel Ae eri Be ee at Dee sae 100, 000. 00 
Hughes, Bruce, fund, to found Hughes alcove____________________ 18, 761. 82 
Myer, Catherine Walden, fund, for purchase of first-class works of 

art for the use of, and benefit of, the National Collection of Fine 


VATS Ses ie pe SA AERA Eke, SiR a SARS EY wt Mee Eel ad Lay 18, 580. 22 
National Collection of Fine Arts, Strong Bequest-_-_____________ 9, 799. 76 
Pell, Cornelia Livingston, fund, for maintenance of Alfred Duane 

Pellig Collection h sick seta asia aire Isa sie eas OB NH ae ea te 7, 265, 59 
Poore, Lucy T. and George W., fund, for general use of the Institu- 

tion when principal amounts to the sum of $250,000___________ 88, 009. 95 
Reid, Addison T., fund, for founding chair in biology in memory of 

PNthaveyo UA hyo hots [Ee Sees SRE SS ase ap a Se ee eee the a A ee 29, 764. 02 
Roebling fund, for care, improvement, and increase of Roebling 

collection WoL minerals. eae ae ee ee ee ee eee 118, 295. 54 
Rollins, Miriam and William, fund, for investigations in physics 

SUCH TNTS ET yee a ea ewe eee EO 91, 565. 20 
Smithsonian employees retirement fund_-_______.______________ 32, 704. 36 
Springer, Frank, fund, for care, ete., of Springer collection and 

Dy nea Ty a NE oe Se eT a at 17, 577. 31 


Walcott, Charles D. and Mary Vaux, research fund, for develop- 
ment of geological and paleontological studies and publishing 


TESUTT Ss tere oe Tes eee CO EAR oes eS tres Se met a 408, 867. 73 
Younger, Helen Walcott, fund: held in truste se 50, 112. 50 
Zerbee, Frances Brincklé, fund, for endowment of aquaria_________ 745. 99 
Special research fund, gift, in the form of real estate____________ 20, 946. 00 


Total endowment for specific purposes other than Freer 
CNGOWMen ti. Sue eae new bere pes ee mea Lhe cosas bot ht sa Se Gy res sri 


The above funds amount to a total of $2,642,923.12, and are carried 
in the following investment accounts of the Institution: 


U. 8S. Treasury deposit account, drawing 6 percent interest______ $1, 000, 000. 00 
Consolidated investment fund (income in table below)_-____-____ 1, 316, 533. 49 
Realestate: smortea ges ete a. 2 oie ae Cee ee eee ee 274, 877.13 
Special funds, miscellaneous investments____.._.________________ 51, 512. 50 


2, 642, 923. 12 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 91 


CONSOLIDATED FUND 


Statement of principal and income for the last 10 years 


Fiscal year Capital Income pee Fiscal year Capital Income a as 
hog Meeeee hs Zea $754, 570.84 | $26, 650. 32 3. 66 1039s $902, 801. 27 | $30, 710. 53 3. 40 
18 ee ea 706, 765. 68 26, 808. 86 3.79 1940. ah ee 1, 081, 249. 25 38, 673. 29 3.47 
Hi Bi) Sees eee 728, 795. 46 26, 836. 61 3.71 1Q4T Sas at 1, 093, 301. 51 41, 167.38 3. 76 
1c. ee ee 738, 858. 54 33, 819. 43 4. 57 1940) see 1, 270, 968. 45 46, 701. 98 3. 67 
Nise au cee 867, 528. 50 34, 679. 64 4:00) |]" 1943.2 oe 1, 316, 533. 49 50, 524. 22 3. 83 


FREER GALLERY OF ART FUND 


Early in 1906, by deed of gift, Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, gave to 
the Institution his collection of Chinese and other Oriental objects of 
art, as well as paintings, etchings, and other works of art by Whistler, 
Thayer, Dewing, and other artists. Later he also gave funds for the 
construction of a building to house the collection, and finally in his 
will, probated November 6, 1919, he provided stock and securities to 
_ the estimated value of $1,958,591.42 as an endowment fund for the 
operation of the Gallery. From the above date to the present time 
these funds have been increased by stock dividends, savings of in- 
come, etc., to a total of $5,836,772.01. In view of the importance and 
special nature of the gift and the requirements of the testator in re- 
spect to it, all Freer funds are kept separate from the other funds of 
the Institution, and the accounting in respect to them is stated sepa- 


rately. 

The invested funds of the Freer bequest are classified as follows: 
Courtland. ero und sy frm ee Ts a eu a aaa 3 ees UE $653, 866. 10 
Court and grounds maintenance fund__________________________ 164, 230. 01 
Curator y funds sso se SS SNE peer ea eee eee PAE 665, 412. 78 
RRCSIGUATYMICZ ACY: 25 2-4 URE TEs ee ke 4, 353, 268. 12 

SU ey De a a a A ee ay AS SAMA Ut ST 5, 836, 772. 01 
SUMMARY 
Invested endowment for general purposes______________________ $1, 3836, 949. 55 
Invested endowment for specific purposes other than Freer 
CRMICRW ROR Gee East S6e) BS 1) frie Ohh apo wha OF cl MEY oo So Faery akg laa 1, 305, 978. 57 
Total invested endowment other than Freer endowment____ 2, 642, 923. 12 
Freer invested endowment for specific purposes_________________ 5, 836, 772. 01 


Total invested endowment for all purposes_______________ 8, 479, 695. 13 


92 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


CLASSIFICATION OF INVESTMENTS 


Deposited in the U. S. Treasury at 6 percent per annum, as au- 

thorized in the United States Revised Statutes, sec. 5591_______ $1, 000, 000. 00 
Investments other than Freer endowment (cost or market value 

at date acquired) : 


Bonds A(dGrGiirerent serous) see ee $515, 3438. 75 
Stocks (40\ different (gronps) 2 sees) Pee ee 795, 761. 87 
Real-estate and first-mortgage notes____________ 824, 989. 63 
Uninvested” capitals =< stot oe eee eee eee 6, 827. 87 
—_—————————_ 1, 642, 923. 12 
Total investments other than Freer endowment___________ 2, 642, 923. 12 


Investments of Freer endowment (cost or market value at date 
acquired) : 


Bonds) (28) different soroups) eee ee $2, 222, 113. 26 
Stocks) (62 ditterent crowns) 22-2 3, 600, 969. 47 
Real estate first-mortgage notes_____. ________ 7, 500. 00 
Uninyested “capital Zee eee ie 8 ei ies 6, 189. 28 
5, 836, 772. 01 
Total. ‘investmentss 22.54 222 eh 8, 479, 695. 13 


CASH BALANCES, RECEIPTS, AND DISBURSEMENTS DURING THE 
FISCAL YEAR* 


@ashi balancevon! hand June (30: 1942 -ew eee eee a Pee $740, 823. 73 
Receipts: 
Cash income from various sources for general 
WOM a Ob eee SUE UGE OTe a eee eee ee cn $82, 792. 06 
Cash gifts and contributions expendable for spe- 
cial scientific objects (not to be invested) ____ 25, 233. 00 
Cash gifts for special scientific work (to be 
UTES TO) fee eee ae ee eee Ey et 500. 00 


Cash income from endowments for specifie use 
other than Freer endowment and from miscel- 
laneous sources (including refund of tem- 


ORATA CVA CES) re nes ss we eet eee 181, 518. 33 
Cash received as royalties from Smithsonian 

Scientitie Serieso 2s se Pare 2 17, 766. 32 
Cash capital from sale, call of securities, ete. 

(tLo”*berrein vested!) (waa ae. eee Be 373, 564. 26 


Total receipts other than Freer endowment____-__________ 631, 373. 97 


Cash income from Freer endowment___________ $216, 125. 07 
Cash capital from sale, call of securities, ete. (to 
beiireimvested)) SUS cr 8 2 a" eee ena Oe 1, 440, 606. 70 
Total receipts from Freer endowment_________-__-___=____ 1). Ga6s 734077 
Fy Geen ees 2 Aa eh A Se aac 3, 028, 929. 47 


‘This statement does not include Government appropriations under the administrative 
charge of the Institution. 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 93 


CASH BALANCES, RECEIPTS, AND DISBURSEMENTS DURING THE FIS- 
CAL YEAR—Continued 


Disbursements: 
From funds for general work of the Institution: 
Buildings—care, repairs, and alterations__ $2, 980. 12 
Kurniture and) fixtures2 2222." .s0 ae 173. 48 
Generalwadminlstrationy c= 22 oso 83, 108. 71 
MA TST AT Y oe ls ee ea 2, D1%. 92 
Publications (comprising preparation, 
printings and. distribution) {——2 2s 36, 634. 70 
Researches and explorations__-_____-_---- 1a eienee 
we $90, 787. 10 
From funds for specific use, other than Freer 
endowment : 
Investments made from gifts and from sav- 
ingsvoOn income laure wae een ie eee 50, 752. 65 
Other expenditures, consisting largely of 
research work, travel, increase and care 
of special collections, ete., from income 
of endowment funds, and from cash gifts 
for specific use (including temporary 
AGVATIGES)) LLU y Tee EE Sey era ene 122, 872. 78 
Reinvestment of cash capital from sale, call 
OLISCCUTITICS .elCns ee Se ee 285, 264. 19 
Cost of handling securities, fee of invest- 
ment counsel, and accrued interest on 
bonds purchased *ss— 2:2 ses a eee 3, 779. 05 
———_—____—__—_ 462, 668. 67 
From Freer endowment: 
Operating expenses of the gallery, salaries, 
field “expenses, Weltesso oe 2S 2 eee 37, 224. 00 
Purchase of artiobjects eee 131, 971. 87 
Reinvestment of cash capital from Sale, 
call-of Securities, etes ear esr —. 1,611, 775. 28 
Cost of handling securities, fee of invest- 
ment counsel, and accrued interest on 
bends) purchased as eet eaten 22, 804. 12 
1, 808, 775. 27 
Cash balance Juners0 21943 Ses eee Se eee ee 671, 698. 43 
D0 a eat Soe DS CSIR ae A A Be EO Te 3, 028, 929. 47 


2 This includes salary of the Secretary and certain others. 


Included in the foregoing are expenditures for researches in pure 
science, publications, explorations, care, increase, and study of collec- 
tions, etc., as follows: 

Expenditures from general funds of the Institution: 


Publications! =a a ee ees Coe Ee ee $36, 684. 70 
Researches and explorabionss. 22.2222 eee 15, 372. 22 


$52, 006. 92 


94 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Expenditures from funds devoted to specific purposes : 


Researchesiand explorations] s-< =o see se oe ae $37, 032. 59 
Care, increase, and study of special collections_______ 7, 062. 42 
PUD Cations Be ee a se ee 6, 054. 74 
$50, 149. 75 
vi Doo W gS eA eT oe ee pe 102, 156. 67 


The practice of depositing on time in local trust companies and 
banks such revenues as may be spared temporarily has been continued 
during the past year, and interest on these deposits has amounted to 
$1,348.28. 

The Institution gratefully acknowledges gifts or bequests from the 
following: 

Funds from sale of certain publications, property of the late E. J. Brown 
to be used, at his request, for the study of birds. 

Florence Brevoort Hickemeyer, bequest, income of which to be used for 
exhibition, preservation and care of photographie works and collection 
of Rudolph Hickemeyer, Jr. 

Friends of Dr. Albert S. Hitchcock for Hitchcock Agrostological Library. 

John A. Roebling, further contributions for research in radiation. 

All payments are made by check, signed by the Secretary of the In- 
stitution on the Treasurer of the United States, and all revenues are 
deposited to the credit of the same account. In many instances deposits 
are placed in bank for convenience of collection and later are with- 
drawn in round amounts and deposited in the Treasury. 

The foregoing report relates only to the private funds of the Insti- 
tution. 

The following annual appropriations were made by Congress for 
the Government bureaus under the administrative charge of the Smith- 
sonian Institution for the fiscal year 1943: 

Generaliexpenses.: =. 220 a2 2 ea ai ee ee Se $394, 334 
(This combines under one heading the appropriations heretofore 

made for Salaries and Expenses, International Exchanges, Amer- 

ican Ethnology, Astrophysical Observatory, and National Collec- 

tion of Fine Arts of the Smithsonian Institution, and for 

Maintenance and Operation of the United States National 


Museum.) 

Preservation of collections (including supplemental appropriation for 

overtime'salaries) 220) 85a iii t lil st ee re ar) ee 699, 246 
Printing (and) bindings— 22-2229 es ee i Dee ee ae 88, 500 
National Zoological Park (including supplemental appropriation for 

overtime salaries) 22a te ee ee ee ee eee 269, 200 
Cooperation with the American Republics (transfer to the Smithsonian 

Tstit tation’) ee es cree ele re oer em teen Ld 57, 500 


WV ON ry Era eet ah a a 20, 000 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 95 


The report of the audit of the Smithsonian private funds is given 
below: 


SEPTEMBER 23, 1943. 
WXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, BOARD OF REGENTS, 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. 0. 

Sirs: Pursuant to agreement we have audited the accounts of the Smithsonian 
Institution for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1948, and certify the balance of 
cash on hand, including Petty Cash Fund, June 30, 1948, to be $673,598.48. 

We have verified the record of receipts and disbursements maintained by the 
Institution and the agreement of the book balances with the bank balances. 

We have examined all the securities in the custody of the Institution and in 
the custody of the banks and found them to agree with the book records. 

We have compared the stated income of such securities with the receipts of 
record and found them in agreement therewith. 

We have examined all vouchers covering disbursements for account of the 
Institution during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943, together with the authority 
therefor, and have compared them with the Institution’s record of expenditures 
and found them to agree. 

We have examined and verified the accounts of the Institution with each trust 
fund. 

We found the books of account and records well and accurately kept and the 
securities conveniently filed and securely cared for. 

All information requested by your auditors was promptly and courteously 
furnished. 

We certify the Balance Sheet, in our opinion, correctly presents the financial 
condition of the Institution as at June 30, 1943. 

Respectfully submitted. 

WILLIAM L. YAEGER, 
Certified Public Accountant. 


Respectfully submitted. 
Freprertc A. DELANO, 
VANNEVAR BusH, 
CLARENCE CANNON, 
Executive Committee. 


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GENERAL APPENDIX 


TO THE 


SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1943 


97 


ADVERTISEMENT 


The object of the Genzrat Appenpix to the Annual Report of the 
Smithsonian Institution is to furnish brief accounts of scientific dis- 
covery in particular directions; reports of investigations made by 
collaborators of the Institution; and memoirs of a general character 
or on special topics that are of interest or value to the numerous 
correspondents of the Institution. 

It has been a prominent object of the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution from a very early date to enrich the annual 
report required of them by law with memoirs illustrating the more 
remarkable and important developments in physical and biological 
discovery, as well as showing the general character of the operations 
of the Institution; and, during the greater part of its history, this 
purpose has been carried out largely by the publication of such papers 
as would possess an interest to all attracted by scientific progress. 

In 1880, induced in part by the discontinuance of an annual sum- 
mary of progress which for 30 years previously had been issued by 
well-known private publishing firms, the Secretary had a series of 
abstracts prepared by competent collaborators, showing concisely the 
prominent features of recent scientific progress in astronomy, geology, 
meteorology, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and 
anthropology. This latter plan was continued, though not altogether 
satisfactorily, down to and including the year 1888. 

In the report for 1889 a return was made to the earlier method of 
presenting a miscellaneous selection of papers (some of them original) 
embracing a considerable range of scientific investigation and discus- 
sion. This method has been continued in the present report for 1948. 

98 


SOLAR RADIATION AS A POWER SOURCE? 


By C. G. ABBOT 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution 


[With 3 plates] 


This major power source of the world is as yet almost unused by 
engineers. The intensity of solar radiation at mean solar distance 
outside the earth’s atmosphere is about 1.94 calories per square centi- 
meter per minute. Expressed in English measures, this is 7.15 B. t. u. 
per square foot per minute. Actual supplies of sun heat, however, 
vary with the season. Owing to the ellipticity of the earth’s orbit, 
we are about 3 million miles nearer the sun in January than in July, 
and the actual intensity of the sun’s rays outside the atmosphere is 
about 6 percent greater in January than in July. As there is less hu- 
midity and clearer air in winter, it follows that the sun’s heat at the 
earth’s surface in the Northern Hemisphere is a good deal more intense 
in winter than in summer for equal solar altitudes above the horizon. 
The reason winter is cold is because the sun lies so far south that its 
rays shine very obliquely, so that the average intensity on a horizontal 
surface is thereby greatly reduced. 

Thick clouds reflect away about 75 percent of the sun rays which 
strike them. Much of the area east of the Mississippi is 50 percent 
cloudy, so it follows that in these sections a third of the sun’s radia- 
tion is reflected out to space. Besides this cloud loss there is an 
actual absorption by the water vapor and other ingredients of the 
atmosphere. This amounts in humid localities to from 15 to 25 
percent. Accordingly, solar power propositions would operate at 
great disadvantage in most of the States east of the Mississippi, ex- 
cepting Florida, as compared to the arid and generally high-altitude 
regions of the Southwest. 

Measurements of solar radiation made at the earth’s surface upon 
a receiver at right angles to the beam, and with the sun at 15° or more 
above the horizon, range from 1.5 calories per square centimeter per 
minute down to 1.0 calorie, or even less, depending on the clearness 
of the atmosphere. In favorable localities a value of about 1.35 


1 Reprinted by permission from The Military Engineer, vol. 35, No. 208, February 1943. 
99 


100 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


calories may be assumed as the average for the day of solar energy 
on a surface normal to the beam, except while clouds obscure the sun. 
This corresponds in ordinary power units to 1.15 horsepower per 
square yard. 

Whether or not it is worth while to employ the solar energy for 
power depends on the efficiency which can be achieved in converting 
solar radiation into mechanical energy. On that factor depend the 
size and cost of the equipment. An efficiency of only 1 to 5 percent 
would be apt to involve prohibitively cumbersome and costly equip- 
ment. Buta solar engine with an efficiency of 10 to 15 percent might 
be commercially competitive with other sources of power, even at 
present. As times goes on, it is to be supposed that the cost of the 
major power sources, coal and oil, will rise, though the limited supply 
of water power may remain relatively unchanged in cost. Hence, 
in the future, unless some as yet unused source of power becomes 
important, it is probable that solar power will be extensively employed. 

If such a change in the major sources of power should occur, it would 
tend to alter very much the distribution of population. Such a State 
as New Mexico would become a great manufacturing center. With 
machines of the type already devised, that State could furnish from 
solar radiation more power than is now used for heat, light, trans- 
portation, and manufacturing in the United States, and at a cost not 
perhaps exceeding the present cost of power from coal. 

There are two major difficulties in the way of utilizing solar radia- 
tion. First, except on overcast days, the sun’s rays come from a moon- 
sized spot, which moves daily through the sky from the eastern to the 
western horizon, and yearly from 23° north to 23° south of the celes- 
tial equator. Second, from sunset to sunrise the sun’s rays are wholly 
cut off. 

EARLY EXPERIMENTS 


In one interesting series of experiments, reported by Willsie and 
Boyle in Engineering News, May 13, 1909, the first difficulty was 
avoided by employing a stationary horizontal receiver. This, how- 
ever, is at great cost in thermodynamic efficiency, owing to the low 
temperatures of operation, and to losses of radiation by reflection, due 
to the very oblique incidence of the rays during many hours of the 
day and year. It would seem fatal to sacrifice so much efficiency. 

The work of Shuman at Tacony, Philadelphia, also reported in that 
same issue of Engineering News, led on at length to the very different 
experiments of Eastern Sun Power, Ltd., described by Ackermann in 
the Smithsonian Report for 1915. These experiments came nearer 
being a commercial success, I believe, than any others on solar power 
up to that time. A large plant was erected near Cairo, Egypt, and 
used for a time for irrigation from the Nile. It appears to have been 


SOLAR RADIATION AS A POWER SOURCE—ABBOT 101 


abandoned during and since the World War of 1914-18. In these ex- 
periments the sun’s rays were roughly focused upon boilers, and thus 
from the thermodynamic viewpoint more eligible temperatures were 
attained than those of Willsie and Boyle’s experiments. 

Some inventors have attempted to employ thermoelectricity or 
photoelectricity as means of escaping from the necessity of working 
through gaseous heat cycles to achieve mechanical motion. It is diffi- 
cult to conceive that thermoelectric couples could ever be a valuable 
expedient for this purpose. The electromotive forces available are so 


> 


Wi 


AN 


DSS 


5 


a 
SS 


Ficure 1.—Eneas’s solar generator, patented March 26, 1901. 


small that the multiplication of couples is necessarily great, and the 
apparatus required would contain enormous numbers of parts. The 
wires used would all be metallic conductors of heat, so that a very large 
fraction of the solar input would be dissipated in useless heat losses. 
As for photoelectricity, it seems to be limited to comparatively narrow 
regions of the spectrum, so that large fractions of the solar rays would 
be wholly useless to these devices. Of the remaining useful rays, no 
inconsiderable part would be converted into heat, and would also be 
useless. I cannot think that at present these direct electrical conver- 


sions of solar radiation seem promising solutions of the solar-power 
problem. 


566766—44—_8 


102 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
INSTRUMENTS 


Within the past quarter century, so much progress has been made 
in the commercial use of aluminum products, and also of high-vacuum 
technique, that it is possible for one who is familiar with the astrono- 
mers’ solution of their problem of following the heavenly bodies with 
telescopes to design types of apparatus for utilizing solar radiation 
for power, combining minimum expense with maximum efficiency. 

Formerly the choice for solar mirrors lay between mirror glass and 
metals of rather low reflecting power and short reflecting life. Such 
materials for mirrors were heavy, costly, inefficient, and quickly 
deteriorating. We can now purchase commercially the bright reflect- 
ing product called Alcoa in thin sheets of large size. It is a special 
preparation of aluminum, long retaining its reflectivity, and with a 
coefficient of reflection for solar rays slightly exceeding 80 percent. 
Frames of suitable curvature being made from duralumin shapes, 
these may be covered with the thin Alcoa sheets to make up cheap, 
light, and fairly permanent solar mirrors. 

In consideration of best design, we come to the question of waste 
of heat. It is well known that heat is lost by three processes: conduc- 
tion, convection, and radiation. Of these, metallic conduction would 
be very important, as stated before, if one should be using a great 
number of thermoelectric elements, but it is possible almost entirely 
to eliminate losses by conduction with boilers of certain forms. With 
moderate temperature differences, and for objects in the open air, 
convection is a far greater dissipater of heat than radiation. But 
direct convection may be eliminated almost altogether if the body 
to be cooled is enclosed by highly evacuated space as commonly 
practiced in the thermos bottle. In that case cooling proceeds almost 
wholly by radiation from the inner to the outer wall of the enclosing 
evacuated sheath, and thence by convection and radiation to the 
surroundings. This consideration leads us to see at once that the 
advantage of employing an evacuated sheath becomes less and less 
as the temperature of the solar boiler rises higher and higher. For 
radiation increases as the fourth power of the temperature for the 
so-called black body or perfect radiator. Since we must use a trans- 
parent sheath to admit rays to the boiler, it is not practicable to cut 
down radiation by fully plating the inner wall of the evacuated 
sheath, as in the thermos bottle. We must, therefore, regard the inner 
wall of the sheath as approximately a “black body.” Hence the inner 
wall of the evacuated sheath, when at high temperatures, will radiate 
strongly to the outer wall, which conducts the heat to its outer 
surface and there loses it by convection. 

On this account it follows that although the sun’s temperature is 
so high that boiler temperatures up to the melting point of materials 


SOLAR RADIATION AS A POWER SOURCE—ABBOT 103 


could readily be attained, this is not advantageous. For though the 
thermodynamic efficiency factor 7,—7:/7, would gain, this would 
be more than offset by the increased heat losses of the boiler. Fur- 
thermore, though quartz glasses like Pyrex enable us to use transpar- 
ent evacuated sheaths at fairly high temperatures, high vacua lose 
their excellence with very high temperatures, so that convection 
becomes serious. 

On these accounts it is not desirable in solar-power machines to 
employ boiler temperatures much above 200° C. (392° F.). If oper- 
ating to a condenser at 30° C., such a temperature of the boiler gives 
a thermodynamic factor of 473—303/473=36 percent, which, for 
reasons just explained, may be regarded as the maximum to be ex- 
pected if due regard is paid to loss of heat from the boiler. 

Another fundamental consideration in designing solar-power de- 
vices is that the loss of heat from a body through convection or radia- 
tion is directly proportional to the external area of the surface of the 
body. Hence it is of importance for diminishing the waste of heat 
that the boiler surface should be as small as possible, by using fairly 
accurate optical mirror forms. 

Astronomers have long ago agreed that the simplest mechanical 
motions that could be devised for following celestial objects are those 
of the equatorial telescope. This scheme involves mounting the in- 
strument which is to follow the celestial object upon an axis parallel 
to the earth’s axis, and imparting to this “polar axis” a uniform 
motion of 15° per hour. If the instrument is to be adapted to follow 
objects at different distances north or south of the celestial equator— 
that is, of different declinations—there must be a second axis at right 
angles carried by the polar axis. This second axis, called the decli- 
nation axis, carries the telescope or other following device and is to 
be set by hand to the position of any desired celestial object, and 
clamped there. If the sun remained stationary with regard to the 
celestial equator, no second axis would be needed in solar-power ma- 
chines. But the sun travels through 47° north and south during the 
year. 

It is highly desirable to operate with a stationary boiler. The 
withdrawal of steam from a moving boiler involves costly and un- 
satisfactory connection. It is clear that a spherical boiler placed 
in the intersection of the two axes of an equatorial mirror mounting 
could be stationary. But it would be impossible to enclose thoroughly 
with an evacuated sheath. The mirror in this case would be circu- 
lar and preferably of parabolic curvature, which is an awkward 
shape for fabrication. 

It has seemed to me preferable to neglect the north-to-south mo- 
tion of the sun, using a mirror rotating uniformly at 15° per hour 


104 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


about a single polar axis. The boiler then becomes a tube of small 
diameter lying in the axis. The vacuum sheath is an elongated 
Pyrex thermos bottle, of which about one-third the circumference of 
the outer surface of the inner wall is gold-plated. The mirror is 
a rectangular concave cylindric mirror, of parabolic curvature, whose 
equation, as I prefer it, is y? = 36x. The mirror is long and narrow 
and rotates about its focus, the polar axis. Being long compared to 
its width, the deliberate end-loss of light at the solstices, June 20 and 
December 20, from neglecting the sun’s motion in declination, is not 
serious, and this loss becomes zero at the equinoxes. The metallic 


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Ficurre 2.—Diagram of flash boiler (4), in vacuum sheath (1), served by water 
supply (2), governed by air pressure in steam chest (7), operating extensible 
chamber (14), governing injector (15). First arrangement. 


boiler tube is blackened by painting with a suspension of lampblack 
in alcohol with a slight addition of shellac. At the low temperatures, 
not exceeding 200° C., this paint does not burn. It absorbs about 95 
percent of the solar radiation. 

The mirror in my small model comprises several castings of alu- 
minum, machined to accurate parabolic curves and joined by L-string- 
ers of duralumin to forma cradle. To this cradle are attached Alcoa 
sheets not previously bent, and held down by narrow metal straps 
screwed through the sheets to the parabolic frames. At the ends the 
mirror frame supports steel hanger bars which carry hollow trun- 
nions, and supports above a counterbalance bar of metal, set edgewise 
to the beam and extending from end to end of the mirror as a stif- 


SOLAR RADIATION AS A POWER SOURCE—ABBOT 105 


fener. Simple stout wooden posts, set in the ground, are adapted 
to carry rollers on which the trunnions rest with their axis parallel 
to that of the earth. The elongated Pyrex thermos bottle enclosing 
the boiler tube rests axial to the hollow trunnions and is closed at 
the lower end. 

To drive the mirror most conveniently, a worm-and-wheel mecha- 
nism is attached to one end of the mirror and its support. The worm 
is driven at the correct speed by a tiny 60-cycle electric motor. Where 
alternating electric current is difficultly available, a weight drive may 
be substituted, regulated by an escapement controlled by an ordinary 


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Figure 3.—Diagram of variable-delivery injector, with delivery governed by 
pressure of steam as first used with Dr. Abbot’s flash boiler. 


alarm clock. I have used such a contrivance successfully for a large 
mirror on Mount Wilson. 

For solar power, I prefer the “flash boiler” principle because of its 
economy of fair skies.? Even in the desert regions, cumulus clouds 
occasionally hide the sun. If the boiler had a considerable ca- 
pacity for heat, a series of such clouds might prevent getting full 
steam pressure at all on a day when the sun shone clearly one-half 
the time. But when the flash boiler is properly designed, full steam 
pressure comes on within 5 minutes after the sun emerges from such 
acJoud. This design involves the automatic regulation of the water 
supply, to be completely turned to steam as fast as supplied while 


2 I have changed my view recently, as indicated in the concluding paragraph of this paper. 


106 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the sun shines and to be completely cut off when the sun is obscured. 
This requires a pump able to force water in against full steam pres- 
sure, and so regulated by the temperature of the boiler that the water 
flow ceases when the boiler cools, and reaches a maximum when the 
boiler temperature reaches the point for the desired pressure of 
steam. 

I accomplish these objects by employing a diaphragm pump, whose 
stroke is governed from zero to maximum displacement by a rotating 
cam of regularly increasing throw, operating through a pitman upon 
the pump. The cam is driven from the 60-cycle motor, above-men- 
tioned, and is mounted on a longitudinally displaceable carriage. The 
position of the carriage, and hence the throw of the cam, is governed 
by the differential heat expansion between the boiler tube and a tape 
of the nonexpansible alloy, invar, attached thereto. 

The water is forced through a small tube centrally to the lower 
end of the boiler tube, where it is guided by a spreader tube into a 
thin sheet bathing the inner wall of the boiler tube. The water bursts 
immediately into steam, which flows out to the engine through con- 
nections from the upper end of the boiler tube. A maze of heat-con- 
ducting copper vanes extends throughout the upper part of the boiler 
tube, so that only dry steam can escape therefrom. In large solar- 
power installations, no doubt it would be desirable to use auxiliary 
superheaters. 

The efficiency of such a device is a matter of critical interest for 
the future of solar power. It may be estimated as follows: 


Percent 
Mrrorsrenectl oni ok 2: Siee leeks tN oe Rees) TS eae 82 
Sheathivtransmissonsts 222s ee a eee ee ee 85 
iBollerabsorptionse ss saree cetera eerie a ee ee ey eee 95 
Heat not. wasted oan) ent cil CE edge ee ened 90 
Boiler efficiency 0.82 X 0.85 X 0.95 X0.90==__________________ 60 
Thermodynamic factor, (as above) 222. 2-2 a ee ee 36 
Assumed mechanical efficiency of engine________-________-_____- 75 

Over-all efficiency of conversion: 0.60 X0.36X0.75=______-- 16. 2 


Recalling, as stated above, that the average receipt of solar energy 
throughout cloudless days in a favorable region corresponds to 1.15 
horsepower per square yard of surface normal to the beam, we con- 
clude that it will require a mirror of not less than 5.4 square yards, or 
48.6 square feet, surface per horsepower under the most favorable of 
circumstances. Such a mirror might well be 10 by 5 feet in projection. 
When we consider wind resistance and other limitations, including 
especially the glass tubing of the evacuated sheath, it seems difficult 


SOLAR RADIATION AS A POWER SOURCE—ABBOT 107 


to suppose that units of more than 5 horsepower (area of mirror 
projection 121% by 20 feet) would be found desirable. 

Such units could be assembled in groups of 30, occupying a ground 
area 150 feet, east-west, by 250 feet, north-south, without undue 
mutual shading, so as to give a maximum of 150 horsepower per 
group. Such a group of machines could be mechanically operated 
in common as regards rotation of mirrors and pumping of feed water. 
They could also deliver steam to a common superheater for use. 

It is estimated that the United States uses the equivalent of ap- 
proximately 10 trillion horsepower hours of power annually for light, 
heat, transportation, and manufacturing. Assuming, as above, 
37,500 square feet of space required for 150 horsepower from the solar 
source, there would be required 30,000 square miles of territory to 
supply this entire requirement, assuming only 8 hours’ sunshine per 
day of the average solar intensity stated above, namely, 1.35 calories 
per square centimeter per minute. The State of New Mexico alone 
has approximately four times this area. 


COST AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS 


The cost of solar power is difficult to estimate. It depends on the 
quantity used. With large installations, care and upkeep would 
become nearly negligible, so that, with a 10-percent return on invest- 
ment, the cost of power at the plant mighi be estimated as less than 
one-third cent per horsepower-hour. 

There remains to consider the serious drawback that direct solar 
power is unavailable at night. For certain purposes, as irrigation, 
this is not a serious objection. 

However, since writing the above I have thought that the means 
shown in United States Patent No. 2,247,830, of July 1, 1940, could 
be expanded to include a strong insulated reservoir of water. Solar 
heating would be conveyed to the water, by gravity circulation 
through a coil immersed therein, from a black high-boiling liquid 
filling a vacuum-sheathed glass focus tube. In this way all the ex- 
pense of the flash boiler would be eliminated, all moments of solar 
heating would be utilized, the water in the reservoir would be main- 
tained in a superheated state night and day, and superheated steam 
would issue to the engine on opening a cock. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Abbot PLATE 2 


DIAPHRAGM PUMP INJECTOR OF VARIABLE THROW GOVERNED BY DIFFERENTIAL 
HEAT EXPANSION BETWEEN BOILER AND INVAR TAPE. 


Rollers which support the mirror seen behind the aluminum plate. 


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SOME BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION 4 


By Brian O’Brien 
Institute of Optics 
The University of Rochester 


[With 1 plate] 


Man and the higher animals depend for their very existence upon 
sunlight. The temperature of the earth’s surface and of the earth’s 
atmosphere is maintained within limits which can support life only 
by the flood of radiation which comes to us from the sun. The power 
supply for all air movement, all winds, everything that goes to make 
up weather, is this same solar radiation. Most of the higher animals 
and land plants can survive only with a supply of fresh water, a 
supply which exists simply because of sunlight. Without the constant 
working of the distillation plant which evaporates water from the 
sea and condenses it as rain and snow there would be nothing but salt 
water on the face of the earth. This distillation plant runs purely 
by solar heat. 

But our dependence upon the sun goes far beyond this. Animals 
cannot by themselves synthesize food and fuel. Even man with all 
his ingenuity has not yet learned to do this. He can convert food 
from one kind to another, as he can convert fuel into altered and 
more convenient forms, but he cannot yet create either. This job 
is reserved for the green plants. The green coloring matter, chlo- 
rophyll, permits a plant to utilize sunlight in converting carbon 
dioxide and water vapor into sugars, starches, and cellulose. This 
process, which literally unburns our coal as rapidly as an active 
human race can burn it, supplies, directly or indirectly, all the food 
and fuel available on the earth. Here again, through the medium 
of plant life, man and the higher animals are dependent upon radia- 
tion from the sun. 

These relations of sunlight to man have been discussed in previous 
Arthur lectures. Tonight I would like to discuss some less evident 
effects of sunlight, which, though subtler, are important too. These 

1The tenth Arthur lecture, given under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, 
February 25, 1941. 

109 


110 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


have to do with biological effects, direct or indirect, of sunlight upon 
the animal organism. They are specific and depend upon the wave 
length and character of the ight. For this reason we must start by 
considering something of the nature of the radiant energy which we 
receive from the sun. 

The light from most sources is made up of many different frequencies 
or wave lengths, and sunlight is no exception to this rule. Such light 
may be analyzed into a spectrum with a prism and the wave lengths 
separated from each other, much as a chemist might make a qualitative 
analysis to determine the elements of which some material or com- 


_— OUTSIDE EARTHS ATMOSPHERE 


one 


i _— AT EARTHS SURFACE 
o> 


\ SEA LEVEL ZENITH ATMOSPHERE 


INTENSITY 


10 


2 4 6 14 16 


8 1.0 
WAVELENGTH IN MICRONS 


Figure 1.—Distribution of energy in the solar spectrum (Abbot) with new exten- 
sion at ultraviolet end. 


pound is composed. If light from a narrow source or slit 1s allowed 
to pass through a prism, a series of images will be produced corre- 
sponding to the several wave lengths present, and so a spectrum is 
formed, This spectrum shows the familiar sequence of colors of the 
rainbow from violet at the short-wave-length end through blue, green, 
yellow, orange, to red at the longest wave length which can be seen. 
There are, of course, wave lengths beyond the range to which the eye 
is sensitive. At longer wave length than the red is the infrared 
extending for many octaves, and at shorter wave length than the 
violet is the ultraviolet, a region which will be of particular interest 
to us here. 

It is of interest to know what wave lengths are present, but it is 
even more important to know how much of each. This can be deter- 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 111 


mined in a variety of ways. The most fundamental method consists 
in converting the radiation into heat by absorption in a blackened 
surface, and measuring the amount of heat produced in each narrow 
region of the spectrum by the rise of temperature of a delicate elec- 
trical thermometer. This is analogous to quantitative analysis by the 
chemist. The energy in each wave length having been determined, 
it may be plotted as a graph of energy against wave length, such a 
plot representing the spectral-energy distribution of the light from 
the particular source measured. 

Fortunately, this has been carried out for solar radiation very 
completely and with high accuracy by Dr. Abbot and his associates at 
the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, so that the spectral- 
energy distribution of sunlight is now well known. Although the 
measurements are made at the earth’s surface and are thus measure- 
ments of sunlight after loss by transmission through the earth’s atmos- 
phere, there is a perfectly definite procedure by which the amount of 
this loss is determined, and so the spectral energy outside the earth’s 
atmosphere as well as that at the earth’s surface is known. These 
are plotted in figure 1. It will be seen that in sunlight the greatest 
energy occurs in the visible region of the spectrum, the intensity falling 
off rapidly as one passes beyond the violet into the ultraviolet region, 
and falling off more slowly as one goes beyond the red into the infra- 
red. 

In order to act upon living matter, solar radiation must be absorbed 
by some part of the living organism. In the case of micro-organisms, 
this absorption occurs throughout the volume of the whole animal or 
plant, much of the radiation passing entirely through the organism. 
In the higher animals and man, practically all the radiation is ab- 
sorbed in the skin, no significant amount penetrating to an appreciable 
depth. In animals, even the skin is protected by the hair, which thus 
becomes the principal absorber of light. Oddly enough, this absorp- 
tion by hair is utilized by animals in at least one important vitamin 
reaction. When radiation of wave length in or near the visible spec- 
trum is absorbed by living matter, the energy is either converted into 
heat or enters directly into a photochemical reaction. Either or both 
of these effects constitute the first step in the direct action of sunlight 
upon a living organism. Since this energy transformation must oc- 
cur when and where the light is absorbed, we may expect a primary 
action anywhere within a small organism. In larger organisms, and 
in particular in higher animals and man, the primary action must oc- 
cur at the surface; that is, in the skin. 

Human skin is somewhat different from that of any animal, al- 
though the gross structures are roughly comparable. Even unpig- 
mented human skin absorbs ultraviolet light strongly, while at the 


112 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


red end of the spectrum, unpigmented skin is a relatively poor ab- 
sorber, reflecting back much of the light energy received. This is 
shown by two photographs of unpigmented human skin which are 
reproduced in plate 1. The first photograph was made with ultra- 
violet radiation, while the second was made with infrared radiation at 
a wave length just beyond the visible spectrum. Jor comparison a 
block of white magnesium carbonate was held in the hand in both 
photographs. This was a good diffuse reflector (i. e., “white”) in the 
ultraviolet and infrared as well as in the visible spectrum. 

Although unpigmented skin reflects much of the visible light near 
the red end of the spectrum as well as the infrared just beyond, that 
which is absorbed appears to produce a rather specific thermal reac- 
tion. If one examines a cross section of human skin, it will be seen 
that the overlying layers contain no pigment materials that absorb 
red or near-infrared radiation strongly. Reflection does take place in 
these regions, owing to the many discontinuities in refractive index 
produced by the cell boundaries in the epidermis, but no measurable 
absorption occurs until the level of the capillaries is reached at 1 milli- 
meter or so beneath the surface. Here the blood pigments absorb 
strongly, with the result that the temperature of this layer is elevated 
above the surface temperature of the skin, and even above the depth 
temperature of the body when the skin is exposed in not-too-cool air to 
intense radiation. This effect was first observed by Carl Sonne, who 
measured the temperature at successive depths beneath the skin’s sur- 
face with a delicate needle thermocouple and found a marked rise in 
temperature under intense illumination. The conversion of radiation 
to heat at this level in the skin raises the temperature of the capillaries 
above adjacent layers, heat being conducted both to the cooler skin 
surface and the cooler tissues at a depth. Since the more sensitive 
innervation is above the capillary layer, it should be possible to pro- 
duce without discomfort a higher temperature in the capillary blood 
by the direct absorption of radiation in it than by conduction of heat 
from the skin surface inward, as would occur with a hot object held 
against the skin. In the latter case, with the temperature gradient in- 
ward, the nerve endings would be at a higher temperature than the 
capillaries. Sonne reports capillary temperatures produced by light 
absorption comparable to high fever temperatures, yet without dis- 
comfort to the patient, and without a corresponding increase of either 
surface or depth temperature. The significance of this effect is not 
yet determined. It must occur in only moderate degree when human 
skin is exposed to sunlight, since several times the intensity of sunlight 
may be borne without discomfort. 

With the exception of this thermal effect in the red and the near- 
infrared, and excepting also the action of visible light upon the eye, 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 113 


there appear to be no other specific effects of sunlight upon any por- 
tion of the animal organism until the ultraviolet limit of the sun’s 
spectrum is reached. Effects of visible light upon the eye are, of 
course, most important and profound, but except under destructively 
intense illumination, the response of the eye appears to be limited 
{o providing us with a sensory contact with the external world. The 
subject of vision belongs properly in the field of sensory physiology 
and psychology and is not included in the types of biological reaction 
I am discussing tonight; so, for lack of time, and with some reluc- 
tance, I shall omit it entirely. 

Most of you, I am sure, have experienced sunburn, or erythema, 
produced by light, but have you considered how it comes about? In 


ERYTHEMA REACTION 


RELATIVE UNITS 


2500 2600 3000 3100 3200 


700 2800 2900 
WAVELENGTH IN| ANGSTROMS 


Ficure 2.—Erythema sensitivity of human skin. 


spite of its name, sunburn is not a heat reaction, but a photochemical 
reaction, produced without heat by ultraviolet light. Moreover, it is 
not produced by all the ultraviolet spectrum, but only by a very nar- 
row region at the extreme ultraviolet limit of the sun’s spectrum 
confined to wave lengths less than about 3150 angstrom units. This 
reaction appears to be a type of photo-oxidation, produced with the 
aid of certain enzymes present in normal skin. Hausser and Vahle, 
and later Hausser, determined the spectral sensitivity of this re- 
action, obtaining a reaction curve showing two maxima and ap- 
proaching zero for wave lengths longer than about 3150 angstroms. 
This is shown in figure 2. These results have been confirmed by 
Luckiesh, Holliday, and Taylor. The significance of erythema and 


114. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the subsequent pigmentation or tanning of the skin has been a dis- 
puted point. The pigment of tanned skin is melanin, which appears 
physiologically inert, produced by an oxidation reaction following ex- 
posure to light. It seems most reasonable to suppose that the pri- 
mary function of pigment is the protection it affords the underlying 
portions of the skin and blood stream from further excessive exposure. 

It is worth while to examine in more detail the ultraviolet end of 
the sun’s spectrum responsible for this reaction. The area under a 
spectral-energy distribution curve represents the energy in that 
spectral region. It will be evident from figure 1 that the area under 
the solar-energy distribution curve for all wave lengths shorter than 


2.0 =p 


!Omm. PATH IN OZONE AT S.T.R 


DENSITY 
BS 


OPTICAL 


3100 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


Figure 3.—Ultraviolet absorption of ozone. 


3150 angstroms represents less than one-thousandth of the area under 
the total curve. The small energy involved renders the effects pro- 
duced by this region of the spectrum the more remarkable. 

It is noteworthy that at the earth’s surface the sun’s spectrum ter- 
minates very abruptly at about 2900 angstrom units. The spectrum 
of the stars and all known heavenly bodies terminates at about this 
same wave length, and long ago the conclusion was inevitable that 
something in the earth’s atmosphere must be absorbing abruptly at 
this point. It is easy to produce much shorter wave lengths from 
artificial light sources, and there is no reason to attribute this abrupt 
termination to anything characteristic of the emission spectrum of 
the sun and stars. More than 50 years ago Hartley correctly attri- 
buted this abrupt termination to absorption by the gas ozone, tria- 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 115 


tomic oxygen, located somewhere in the earth’s atmosphere. Since 
only traces of ozone could be detected in the atmosphere at the earth’s 
surface, Hartley concluded that the ozone must be at a considerable 
elevation. In 1920 Fabry and Buisson, at the University of Mar- 
seilles, measured the ultraviolet end of the sun’s spectrum very care- 
fully, and from these measurements and previous laboratory measure- 
ments which they had made upon known amounts of ozone, concluded 
that the total amount in the earth’s atmosphere was equal to a layer of 
the pure gas about 3 millimeters thick at standard temperature and 
pressure. Subsequent measurements have confirmed this, and we now 
know that ozone is distributed in the earth’s atmosphere in amounts 
dependent upon the latitude and the season of the year. This is im- 
portant to us, since fluctuation in this amount of ozone causes a very 
large fluctuation in the amount of ultraviolet light reaching the earth’s 
surface at the limit of the sun’s spectrum. 

The profound effect of ozone is evident from an examination of its 
absorption spectrum. This is shown in figure 3 in the form of a plot 
of optical density (logarithm to the base 10 of the reciprocal of the 
transmission) as a function of wave length. The very rapid increase 
in absorption at wave lengths below 3200 angstroms is evident from an 
inspection of this curve. 

Recently automatic instruments have been devised for measuring 
by spectroscopic means the amount of ozone over any given station and 
recording this amount from hour to hour. As might be expected, fluc- 
tuations do occur, although the average amounts for any given week 
or month appear to follow the general seasonal and latitude distri- 
bution. In figure 4 is shown the day-to-day variation of ozone in a 
zenith atmosphere over Rochester, N. Y. (latitude 43° 7’ N.), for 4 
weeks in the summer. The two curves labeled “3050 A.” and “3110 A.” 
are simply independent determinations of the same quantity and will 
be seen to be very consistent. 

Not only the amount of ozone in a zenith atmosphere but the angle 
at which the sun’s rays pass through the atmosphere is of importance 
in determining the ozone absorption. This will be evident from con- 
sidering the path of solar rays through the atmosphere when the sun 
is, say, 80° above the horizon. For this condition (a zenith angle of 
60°) the light path will be increased by the secant of 60°, or by a 
factor of 2. This is referred to as air mass 2, air mass 1 being the 
mass of air through which light must travel in passing through a 
zenith atmosphere. 

A striking example of the influence of sunlight upon man is found 
in the disease of rickets. Affecting infants and young children, it 
was long known to be associated with dietary deficiencies and par- 
ticularly with a deficiency of fats. Cod-liver oil was known to be an 


116 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


important remedy and to be much superior to other fats for this 
purpose. In 1890 Palm, observing that rickets was more prevalent 
in the Temperate Zones than in the Tropics, and that there appeared 
to be seasonal variations, attributed this to the influence of sunlight. 
However, for many years thereafter little attention was paid to 
Palm’s work, and the relation of light to rickets was considered inci- 
dental. In 1919, however, Huldchinsky, working with undernour- 
ished children in Vienna following the war, found that rickets could 
be cured by exposure of the affected child to ultraviolet light from a 
mercury arc. This surprising result was soon confirmed by work- 
ers in various parts of the world, notably by Hess and his asso- 
ciates. This discovery that exposure of a child to light could com- 


3050 A 


JUNE, 1940 


Figure 4.—Daily variations in quantity of atmospheric ozone. 


pensate for a deficiency in diet was of great significance. Closer 
attention was directed to the fats, and in 1924 Steenbock and, inde- 
pendently, Hess reported that fats and oils which were not curative 
in rickets could be rendered potent by exposure to ultraviolet light. 
It became evident that the active principle, or vitamin D as it was 
called, was being formed from some provitamin by the action of 
light. Numerous investigations by Hess and his associates, by Rosen- 
heim and Webster, by Windaus, and by others too numerous to men- 
tion here, demonstrated that ergosterol, first isolated by Tanret in 
1889, is a parent substance from which vitamin D is produced by 
ultraviolet radiation. 

At first it appeared that only from ergosterol could vitamin D be 
formed. However, discrepancies were soon noted in the vitamin-D 
potency of irradiated preparations when tested on birds (usually the 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 117 


chicken) as compared to tests on mammals (usually the rat). This 
led to the discovery that at least one other substance, 7-dehydro- 
cholesterol, could be converted into vitamin D by exposure to light. 
Ergosterol is a characteristic plant sterol, while 7-dehydro-cholesterol 
is a sterol found in animal substances. It seems probable therefore 
that it is 7-dehydro-cholesterol and not ergosterol which is acted upon 
when human skin is exposed to sunlight, and so converted into vitamin 
D, which, entering the peripheral blood stream, prevents or cures 
rickets in the child so exposed. It was first shown by Kon, Daniels, 
and Steenbock that the quantum efficiency of the photochemical reac- 


eee ERGOSTEROL 
ve EFFICIENCY 


——— 7-DE 


HYDRO- 
CHOLESTEROL 


oO 


RELATIVE UNITS 
oO 


> 


ABSORPTION 
COEFFICIENTS 


COMPARISON OF ERGOSTEROL ABSORPTION 
WITH SPECTRAL ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENY 


2500 2600 2700 2800 2900 3000 3100 3200 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


FIcuRE 5.—Ultraviolet absorption of provitamin sterols and relative antirachitic 
reaction. 


tion converting the sterol into vitamin D is substantially independent 
of wave length, and there is reason to expect such a result. This 
would mean that the energy efficiency of the reaction could be arrived 
at from the characteristic absorption of the sterols as a function of 
wave length. ‘These absorption curves are shown in figure 5, and it 
should be necessary only to divide the ordinates by the energy value 
of the quantum at each wave length (i. e., multiply the ordinates by 
the wave lengths) to obtain the spectral-response curve. However, 
such a spectral-response curve would be correct only when the sterol 
was irradiated in dilute solution and in the absence of other con- 
taminating substances exhibiting masking absorptions in the same 
spectral regions. In animal skin the condition of dilution is no doubt 
566766—44—_9 


118 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


fulfilled, but many other light-absorbing substances are present. It 
is not surprising, therefore, that the spectral response for the anti- 
rachitic effect of ultraviolet radiation directly upon the animal’s skin 
should be modified somewhat from the response of the pure sterol. 
Knudson and Benford have measured this response in albino rats, 
their results being shown also in figure 5. The response in human 
skin may not be identical with that occurring in the albino rat, but 
may well be very similar, so the results of Knudson and Benford pre- 
sent the best approximation to date. 

In order that we may calculate the antirachitic effect of sunlight * 
under a variety of conditions when acting directly upon animal skin, 
it is necessary that we know more than the spectral response per unit 
energy shown in figure 5. In addition, it is necessary to have the 
spectral-energy distribution at the short-wave-length end of the sun’s 
spectrum for the several conditions under which we wish to calculate 
the effect. Because of the strong selective absorption by ozone in 
this region of the spectrum, the energy is dropping rapidly as one 
proceeds to shorter wave lengths. For this reason the usual thermal 
method for measuring spectral-energy distribution is not as satis- 
factory as are certain photographic procedures. In these, suitable 
precautions must be taken as have been described elsewhere, and a 
double dispersion spectrographic instrument must be used to eliminate 
the effects of scattered light. The details of these measurements will 
be published elsewhere. The results are shown in figure 6 for the 
spectral intensity of solar radiation as received at the earth’s surface 
at sea level through a clear zenith atmosphere (air mass 1) for two 
ozone quantities. The upper curve is for total ozone in a zenith 
atmosphere equal to 2.0 millimeters of the pure gas at standard tempera- 
ture and pressure, while the lower curve is for 2.8 millimeters of ozone 
under the same condition. These curves have been smoothed to 
eliminate the Fraunhofer structure while still preserving the correct 
average ordinates over any small wave-length interval. This is to 
simplify the graphical integration to be carried out as described below. 

In general, sunlight must reach the earth’s surface after passing 
obliquely through the earth’s atmosphere at some angle Z with the 
zenith. This results in an increase in path through each stratum of 
the atmosphere in the ratio of the secant of the zenith angle. The 
resultant increase in absorption by the ozone and increase in scattering 
by the air molecules can be calculated. The result is shown in the 
curves of figures 7 and 8 for a series of air masses (i. e., secants of the 
zenith angle), and for two quantities of ozone, 2.0 and 2.8 millimeters 
S. T. P. in a zenith atmosphere. 

2The writer wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Mrs. F. Dana Miller in making 


calculations or antirachitic effects under a research grant from the Wisconsin Alumni Re 
search Foundation. 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’'BRIEN 119 


The antirachitic effect of sunlight for the several conditions of 
ozone and air mass can now be calculated at each wave length by 
multiplying the antirachitic response per unit energy (fig. 5) by the 
solar energy at that wave length (figs. 7 and 8). This has been done 
and the product at each wave length plotted to form the family of 
curves in figures 9 and 10. For each condition of ozone and air mass 
the solar antirachitic effect is represented by the integral of the 


14 Ta GEE a ae 


12 SEA LEVEL ZENITH ATMOSPHERE 


INTENSITY 


2900 3000 100 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


FiIcurse 6.—Distribution of energy at the ultraviolet end of the solar spectrum at 
sea level through zenith atmosphere (air mass=1.0). 


relative efficiency as a function of wave length. This is represented 
by the area under the appropriate curve of figure 9 or figure 10. The 
functions are not analytic, so the integration must be carried out by 
graphical or mechanical means, but this is easily done with the aid 
of a planimeter. The results of this integration are plotted in figure 
11 in which the antirachitic efficiency of solar radiation is shown as a 
function of air mass for 2.0 and 2.8 millimeters of ozone S. T. P. in 
the atmosphere. 


120 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The significant feature of the curves of figure 11 is the rapid falling 
off of the antirachitic effectiveness of sunlight, with increase in atmos- 
pheric ozone and with increase in the air mass resulting from obliquity 
of the sun’s rays. For air mass 2 corresponding to the sun 30° above 
the horizon it will be noted that the antirachitic effect is less than 
one-tenth that of the sun in the zenith under otherwise identical con- 


2.0 mm. OZONE 


INTENSITY 


WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


Ficurs 7.—Solar spectral-energy for various air masses. (2.0 mm. ozone in 
zenith atmosphere.) 


ditions. For air mass 3 corresponding to the sun about 20° above 
the horizon the effect has fallen to about one-eightieth that of the 
zenith sun. 

It now becomes possible to predict the antirachitic effectiveness of 
sunlight for a clear day at any point on the earth’s surface at any 
season and at any time of day, providing only that the zenith ozone 
over the station be known. This has been carried out for latitudes 
33°, 38°, and 43°, and for the conditions of 2.0 and 2.8 millimeters of 
ozone, representing average low and average high ozone quantities 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN AWA | 


for the Temperate Zones. The results are shown in figures 12 and 13 
for clear days at noon as a function of time of year. The scale of 
months is for north latitudes, but exactly similar curves will apply 
to south latitudes except that the scale for time of year must be 
shifted by 6 months from the indicated values. In order to show the 
effects of hour of the day at the three selected latitudes and for the 


2.8mm. OZONE 


INTENSITY 


——— 
2900 3000 Tete) 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


FieuRe 8.—Solar spectral energy for various air masses. (2.8 mm. ozone in zenith 
atmosphere. ) 


two selected quantities of ozone, it is necessary to plot six families 
of curves. These are shown in figures 14 to 19, inclusive. It will be 
noted that near midsummer the spread in latitude between 33° and 
43° results in only a slight drop in the effectiveness of sunlight near 
noon, providing that the ozone is constant. In midwinter the effective 
change of latitude is far more important, the 10° difference between 
33° and 43° resulting in a change in effectiveness of sunlight of more 
than fourfold. 


122 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The seasonal and geographic differences in antirachitic effect are 
more impressive when one considers the actual exposure to sunlight 
necessary to protect a child against rickets. This figure is not easy 
to arrive at, since it is difficult to control the factors in any single 
direct experiment with sufficient accuracy. However, there is indirect 
evidence from which we may arrive at 15 minutes’ exposure per day 
of a nude child to zenith clear-day sunlight under tropical (2.0 milli- 
meters ozone) conditions as entirely adequate to protect against 
rickets, even in the absence of other vitamin-D intake. A Negro 


PRODUCT CURVES OF SOLAR ENERGY 
TIMES ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 
2.0 mm OZONE IN ATMOSPHERE 


RELATIVE EFFIENCY 


ae 


——— 


29900 2950 5000 35050 3100 3150 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


F'icurE 9.—Product curves of solar spectral energy by antirachitic efficiency. (2.0 
mm. ozone in zenith atmosphere.) 


child may require somewhat greater exposure because of loss of radia- 
tion in the skin pigment, although this is by no means demonstrated. 
If we use the above figure of 15 minutes per day, the scale is immedi- 
ately set for figures 11 through 19. Thus for sun in the zenith and 2.8 
millimeters ozone in the atmosphere, 27 minutes per day (clear sky) 
would be required. For midwinter conditions at the higher latitudes 
the exposures become so long as to be entirely out of the question. 
For example, in midwinter at 48° latitude with 2.8 millimeters ozone 
in the zenith atmosphere the exposure required even at noon on a 
clear day would be 66 times 15 minutes, or more than 16 hours, and 
even with only 2.0 millimeters of ozone in the atmosphere the expo- 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 123 


sure required would be more than 7 hours! Evidently even in ideal 
weather one cannot rely upon direct exposure to winter sunlight in 
the higher latitudes, and it is upon the winter food supply that the 
population must depend except in tropical or semitropical latitudes. 
Actually much of the vtiamin D in the food may have been sunlight- 
produced, but this topic lies outside of our present discussion. 

The calculations thus far have been limited to the three latitudes 
33°, 38°, and 43°. In figure 20 is shown a reproduction of a United 
States Geological Survey map upon which these three latitudes have 


"PRODUCT CURVES OF SOLAR ENERGY 
TIMES ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 


2.8mm OF OZONE IN ATMOSPHERE 


07 


(o) 
: 


oO 
B 


oO 
N 


RELATIVE EFFICIENCY 


02 


Ol 


5000 5050 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


FicurE 10.—Product curves of solar spectral energy by antirachitic efficiency. (2.8 
mm. ozone in zenith atmosphere.) 


been drawn. It will be seen that these latitudes are fairly represent- 
ative of the United States, although significant areas of the country 
lies above 43° and below 33°. Similarly in figure 21 latitudes 33° and 
43° north and south of the Equator have been drawn on a Mercator 
projection of the earth’s surface. It will be seen that a substantial 
portion of the populated areas is included within these latitude belts. 
If one desires the antirachitic effect of sunlight outside these belts it 
is only necessary to determine the zenith angle of the sun for the 
place, time of year, and time of day with the aid of a nautical almanac. 
The secant of this zenith angle determines the air mass from which 
the relative antirachitic effect may be determined by reference to 
figure 11. 


124 |§ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR RADIATION AS 
A FUNCTION OF AIR MASS (M) 


20mm OZONE 


EFFICIENCY 


ZS 
AIR MASS 


Figure 11.—Variation of solar antirachitic effect with air mass. 


100 


20mm OZONE IN ATMOSPHERE 
12 NOON 


fo) 
oO 


EFFICIENCY - RELATIVE UNITS 
> 
broke 


8 


SEASONAL VARIATION IN 
10 ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 


=o 


JAN. FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT. CCT NOv. DEC 


IIcurE 12.—Seasonal variation in solar antirachitie effect for three latitudes. 
(2.0 mm. ozone in zenith atmosphere.) 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 125 


SEASONAL VARIATION IN 
ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 


28mm OZONE IN ATMOSPHERE 
12 NOON 


Se°NLAT 


JAN. FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT oct NOV. DEC. 


Fieurr 13.—Seasonal variation in solar antirachitie effect for three latitudes. 
(2.8 mm. ozone in zenith atmosphere.) 


VARIATION OF ANTIRACHITIC 
90 EFFICIENCY WITH TIME OF DAY 20mmOZONE 
’ 33°N. LAT 
60 
70 


rd 
=z 
> 60 
2 
+ 
< 
a 50 
& JUNE 22 
x JUNE | AND JULY IO 
= ——MAY 1 AND AUG!IZ 
uw 40 APR IS AND AUGZ9 
9 APR t AND SEPTI2 
rs Wow MAR |S AND SEPT 27 
30 TA aR AND OCT 12 
(Fee 15 AND OCT 28 
vA FEB 1 AND Novul 
20 AK JAN 15 AND NOV28 
Xx seen JAN 1 AND DECI2 
10 
5 6 6 7 


TIME OF DAY 


FicvrE 14.—Hourly variation of solar antirachitic effect. (2.0 mm. zenith ozone, 
33° N. latitude.) 


126 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The phenomenon of sunburn is probably of less physiological im- 
portance than the antirachitic effect of sunlight, but it has seemed 
worth while to calculate the relative erythema production by sunlight 
for one latitude, 43°, and for one ozone quantity, 3.0 millimeters S. T. 
P. Using the data for erythema reaction per unit energy as a func- 
tion of wave length shown in figure 2, the series of product curves 
shown in figure 22 have been calculated by the same procedure fol- 
lowed in obtaining the curves of figures 9 and 10. The integrals of 
these curves as represented by the area under each are shown in figure 
23 and are analogous to the results plotted in figure 11. Finally, 
in figure 24 are shown the results for erythema reaction under sun- 


VARIATION OF ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 
WITH TIME OF DAY 


2.0mm OZONE 
58’ N.LAT. 


JUNE 22 
3 “JUNE | AND JULY iO 
MAY | AND AUG IZ 


\ arr is AND AUG.29 
Y \ \ APR. | AND SEPT 12 
MAR. 15 AND SEPT 27 


\\ Se 1 AND OCT. 12 
FEB 15 AND OCT 28 
FEB | AND NOVII 


EFFICIENCY - RELATIVE UNITS 


7 
TIME oF DAY 


Figure 15.—Hourly variation of solar antirachitic effect. (2.0 mm. zenith ozone, 
38° N. latitude.). 


light at noon on clear days as a function of time of year for latitude 
43° and 3.0 millimeters of ozone in the zenith atmosphere. The ex- 
posure to sunlight necessary to produce an erythema varies greatly 
among individuals and is dependent upon the condition of the skin. 
The skin of a sensitive individual not previously exposed to ultra- 
violet radiation will show an erythema reaction if exposed for about 
15 minutes to zenith sunlight through 3.0 millimeters of ozone. 

In contrast with the effects just discussed, the destruction of bac- 
teria by ultraviolet light is a typical example of the influence of 
radiation upon micro-organisms. Also it is probable that its impor- 
tance to the human race is as great as any of the reactions mentioned 
above, for by this means sunlight keeps bacterial growth in check. 
Because of the small size of the individual bacterium most of the ultra- 
violet radiation incident upon the bacterial cell passes on through, 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 


loo 
VARIATION OF ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 
90 WITH TIME OF DAY 
2.0mm OZONE 
y 43° N.LAT. 
BO 
70 
9) 
et 
z 
> 60 
wu 
2 
% 
3 50) 
x JUNE 22 
= UYUNE | AND 
iy 40 \ MAY | AND 
3 WEN APR IS AND 
i Wi APR | AND 
uw 30 MGiN ARIS AND 
we \ AR | AND 
CAYCE IS AND 
20 


‘ \ AN. IS AND 


OEE ESS 


re FEB. | AND 


© 


TIME OF DAY 
Ficure 16.—Hourly variation of solar antirachitie effect. (2.0 mm. zenith ozone, 
43° N. latitude.) 


JULY 10 
AUG. 12 
AUG 29 
SEPT12 
SEPT 27 
OCT 12 
OCT 28 
NOV.11 
NOV 28 
DEC i2 


127 


even in those regions of the spectrum where the specific absorption per 
unit thickness of bacterial protoplasm is high. Thus the primary 
photochemical reaction which results in the destruction of the organ- 
ism may occur anywhere within the bacterial cell, and very possibly 


within some components of the cell nucleus. 


100 


VARIATION OF ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 
WITH TIME OF DAY 


90 


2.6mm. OZONE 
53" N.LAT. 


JUNE 22 


EFFICIENCY -RELATIVE UNITS 


JUNE | AND JULY 10 


FEB.IS AND OCT. 28 


FES. 1 AND NOV. Il 


. JAN.) AND DEC.12 


Mt 12 t 
TIME OF DAY 


Ficure 17.—Hourly variation of solar antirachitic effect. (2.8 mm. zenith ozone, 


33° N. latitude.) 


128 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


100 


VARIATION OF ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY 
WITH TIME OF DAY 


28mm OZONE 
S8°N. LAT. 


—_—_—————JUNE 22 
\ ————— JUNE | AND JULY 10 
\—————-— MAY | AND AUG.12 
\ ————APR. 15 AND AUG 29 

\ APR | AND SEPTIZ2 

\\ _-—— MAR. |5 AND SEPT 27 
MAR. | AND OCT 12 

FEB.IS AND OCT 28 

. FEB. | AND NOV.11 
JAN. | AND DECI2 


EFFICIENCY - RELATIVE UNITS 


1 2 3 Se oG 7 


i 12 
TIME OF DAY 


Figure 18.—Hourly variation of solar antirachitic effect. (2.8 mm. zenith ozone, 
38° N. latitude.) 


i(efe) 
VARIATION OF ANTIRACHITIC EFFICIENCY WITH 


TIME OF DAY 


2.8mm OZONE 
43° N.LAT 


8 


JUNE 22 
JUNE } AND JULY 1O 


> 
Oo 


EFFICIENCY - RELATIVE UNITS 


s 


Gls Sines 
MAR 15 AND SE 

MAR | AND OCT 12 
FEB. IS AND OCT 23 
FEB. 1 AND NOVI 
JAN. 1 AND DEC I2 


TIME OF DAY 


Figure 19.—Hourly variation of solar antirachitic effect. (2.8 mm. zenith ozone, 
43° N. latitude.) 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 129 


Ficurs 20.—Latitude belts across the United States for which solar antirachitic 
effects have been calculated. 


) 


CK LLB | : 


¢ 


Fieaure 21.—Latitude belts on the earth’s surface for which solar antirachitic 
effects have been calculated. 


130 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


ERYTHEMA (Rez) 
o 


43° N. LATITUDE 


3.0mm. OZONE 


——=4 
24900 5000 5/00 5200 


WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


Fieure 22.—Product curves of solar spectral energy by erythema efficiency. (3.0 


RELATIVE EFFICIENCY 


mm, ozone in zenith atmosphere. ) 


100 $$ 


90 
ERYTHEMA 
80 
70 
60}- 
50 
\ 

40 ss 
30 
20 
10 

Ue knee aA hy Se NAO DLA A AS 

1.0 12 14 16 18 2.0 2.2 24 
AIR MASS 


FIGURE 23.—Variation of solar erythema effect with air mass. (3.0 mm. ozone in 


zenith atmosphere. ) 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 131 


As early as 1877 Downes and Blunt investigated the destruction of 
putrefactive bacteria by sunlight and made rough measurements of 
the relative action of different colors. There followed many investi- 
gations of the effect of ultraviolet light on bacteria, but the spectral- 
response curve for this reaction was not determined for more than 50 
years. It was measured by H. W. Lyall and myself in 1926 and inde- 
pendently by Sonne in 1927. We had expected the spectral-response 
curve to be quite different for different bacteria, but to our surprise 
eight pathogenic and two saprophytic organisms showed surprising 
similarity in spectral response, although those selected included cocci, 
Gram-negative baccili, and two acid-fast strains. Our most complete 


Ico 


90 


80 


70 


60 


SO 


40 


RELATIVE EFFICIENCY 


30 


JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP oct NOV DEG 


Figure 24.—Seasonal variation in solar erythema effect. (3.0 mm. zenith ozone, 
43° N. latitude.) 


work was done with a strain of Staphylococcus aureus. 'The spectral 
response of this organism is shown in figure 25. It is interesting to 
note that Sonne’s measurements on the colon bacillus agree almost 
perfectly with this curve, although the characteristics of the colon 
bacillus are different in every respect from those of Staphylococcus 
aureus. More recently similar measurements have been made by 
Gates, with good agreement over part but not all of the spectral range. 

We may calculate the seasonal variation in the bactericidal effect 
of sunlight by following the same procedure already applied to the 
antirachitic and erythema reactions. This has been carried out to 
form the product curves of figure 26, for the condition of 3.0 milli- 
meters of ozone in the zenith atmosphere. The integrals of these 


132 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


BACTERICIDAL REACTION 


UNITS 


RELATIVE 


2500 2600 2700 3100 3200 


WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


FIcurE 25.—Variation of bactericidal effect with wave length. 


43° N. LAT. TUDE 


3.0mm. OZONE 


BACTERICIDAL REACTION (Ret) 


——] 


2900 000 any 5100 5200 
WAVELENGTH IN ANGSTROMS 


Ficure 26.—Product curves of solar spectral energy by bactericidal efficiency. 
(3.0 mm. ozone in zenith atmosphere.) 


EFFECTS OF SOLAR RADIATION—O’BRIEN 133 


curves (i. e., the areas under each curve) are plotted in figure 27, 
showing the bactericidal effect of sunlight as a function of air mass 
for 3.0 millimeters of ozone in a zenith atmosphere. In figure 28 is 
plotted the bactericidal effect as a function of time of year for clear 
days at noon, 48° N. latitude. Although the general trend of this 
curve with time of year is similar to the curve for antirachitic and 
erythema effects, it will be noted that the summer-to-winter differ- 
ence is even greater. Because of this the effective bactericidal action 
of sunlight is even more dependent upon short air path (sun near 


i 


90— 
BACTERICIDAL EFFECT 
80 
70 
60 


50 


40 


RELATIVE EFFICIENCY 


30 


20 


1.0 1. 14 16 2.0 2.2 2.4 


18 
AIR MASS 


Figure 27.—Variation of solar bactericidal effect with air mass. (3.0 mm. ozone 
in zenith atmosphere. ) 


zenith) than are the antirachitic and erythemal reactions. Thus the 
effects of latitude, time of year, and time of day are all more 
pronounced. 

In spite of the similarity in the spectral sensitivity of different bac- 
teria to ultraviolet light, there is a considerable difference in the ab- 
solute exposure necessary to destroy different strains. Acid-fast or- 
ganisms, such as the tubercle bacillus, are relatively resistant to ultra- 
violet ight and require for their destruction an exposure of about 14 
minutes to zenith sunlight through 3.0 millimeters of ozone. Certain 
Gram-negative organisms, such as the colon bacillus and particularly 
Baccillus paratyphosus B, require an exposure of only about 2 min- 
utes to sunlight for complete destruction. Most pathogenic bacteria 
appear to lie between these two extremes as regard sensitivity to 
ultraviolet light. From this the scale can be set for figures 27 and 28. 

566766—44—10 


134. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


It will be seen that even very resistant bacteria are quickly destroyed 
by summer sunlight, but that even the more sensitive organisms will 
not be destroyed by all-day exposure to midwinter sunlight in the 
higher latitudes. 


BACTERIGIDAL EFFECT 


RELATIVE EFFICIENCY 
a 
° 


AP MAY JU — JUL AUG Gc 


Ficure 28.—Seasonal variation in solar bactericidal effect. (3.0 mm. zenith 
ozone, 43° N. latitude.) 


It is difficult to evaluate the full significance to the human race of 
this solar bactericidal action. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun 
and desiccation are the two great natural agencies for destroying bac- 
terial growth, and of these the former is probably the more im- 
portant. Here again man’s very existence must depend upon ultra- 
violet radiation, without which bacteria and other micro-organisms 
would crowd him from his place in the sun. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—O’Brien PigAcirl 


1. Using only ultraviolet radiation of wave length 3300-3900 A. 


2. Using only infrared radiation of wave length 7600-8000 A 


PHOTOGRAPHS ON PANCHROMATIC FILM OF UNPIGMENTED SKIN 
AND MAGNESIUM CARBONATE COMPARISON BLOCK. 


Viet) ee 
Bh tea 
CS mee! 
r 


ah ts 


4 eh ! a 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE* 


By H. F. Armsrrone, D. Sc., F. R. S. 


[With 4 plates] 


In an island country the quest for relaxation normally brings the 
great majority of us to the coast for holidays, where we make ac- 
quaintance with the sea and perhaps also with some of its wonders and 
the things which live and grow in it. Many people cross the narrow 
seas to the continent, in others the urge of discovery takes them across 
the oceans: all are conscious of the immensity of the sea and the fact 
that it is salt. 

Saltness is an indication that substances in some quantity are dis- 
solved in the water, largely common salt, which in many lands is won 
from the sea by solar evaporation. Sea water contains appreciable 
quantities of other salts besides sodium chloride, in particular of mag- 
nesium and potassium sulfates and chlorides. More complete analy- 
sis has disclosed the presence of quite minute quantities of other ele- 
ments present to the extent of 1 part in 1,000 or less, and still others 
present in even more minute quantity; and a little reflection shows that 
this must be so, for the oceans are the ultimate receptacle of everything 
that is washed from the land by the rain and carried by the rivers into 
the sea. This includes both dissolved and suspended matter. 

The wind and the rain and frost—the agencies of destruction and 
denudation—break down the hills and scour the valleys. Acid waters 
on the moors, neutral or alkaline waters on the plains, salt water in 
the sea, all act to bring into solution traces of the most sparingly solu- 
ble substances. The quantity of any one of the rarer constituents of 
the earth’s crust in a million parts of sea water is minute and, indeed, 
many are only detectable by the most refined methods of the analytical 
chemist. Some, indeed, can only be found in the ashes of plants. 

About three-fourths of the earth’s surface is water. In bulk this 
is estimated to amount to 300 million cubic miles. 

A cubic mile seems to be a handy unit for statistics regarding the 
content of minerals. It is, however, a gigantic unit, for in round fig- 
ures it will contain 6 million tons of magnesia, 4 million tons of potash, 


1 Reprinted by permission from Discovery, March 1943. 
135 


136 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


117 million tons of common salt, and some 300,000 tons of bromine, 
which is present to the extent of less than 70 parts per 1 million of sea 
water. 

Such quantities, if extracted, would satisfy the world for a con- 
siderable time, while a cubic mile of sea is not out of range of a 
single plant located on an ocean seaboard. The sea clearly forms 
an inexhaustible storehouse of minerals, provided that man can find 
out how to recover them individually at prices comparable with the 
cost of winning the same substances from the earth. 


THE COMPOSITION OF OCEANS 


Before describing what has been done in this direction, it is well 
to devote a few words to the composition of the oceans. One theory 
is that they have been salt from the beginning rather than the alter- 
native theory that they have become so by washing out of salts from 
the land and gradual concentration by evaporation of the oceans. 
This hypothesis is based on the great similarity between the salts of 
the ocean and the gaseous products of volcanic eruptions rich in chlo- 
rides and sulfates of all kinds. The theory explains the main con- 
stituents, though it does not necessarily apply to the trace elements 
where any postulate of constancy of composition is untenable. 

Apparently the first quantitative analyses of sea water were made 
by Lavoisier in 1872. 

It transpires that the variations in the proportions of individual 
salts to the total salts are very small; sea water may be regarded as of 
constant composition, the individual ingredients being considerably 
dissociated in the dilute solution. This interdiffusion accounts easily 
for the uniformity of composition of sea water throughout the 
whole ocean, so that the only appreciable difference from point to 
point is the total salinity of the mixed solutions. 

In each of the three oceans the salinity is lower in the equatorial 
regions where the rainfall is high; there are two maxima—one in the 
north, the other in the south tropical belts where evaporation pre- 
dominates; at the Poles there are regions of lower salinity. The North 
Atlantic maximum is the highest at 37.9 parts per 1,000 salinity; as 
a whole, the Atlantic has the highest salinity of 35.37. The average 
of the whole surface of the oceans may be taken as 34.5. ‘There is a gen- 
eral increase of salinity with depth. 

Common salt is essential to both man and beast; we need more salt 
as the proportion of meat we eat diminishes. In Britain and else- 
where there are large deposits of pure salt resulting from the drying 
up of inland seas in past geological ages. This is recovered by mining 
or more generally by dissolving the salt underground, pumping up 
the brine, and evaporating it. The export of salt from England has 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 137 


long been a significant part of our overseas trade: it is the founda- 
tion stone of the heavy chemical industry, and salt and the “heavy 
chemicals” made from it have helped to make Liverpool one of the 
world’s greatest ports. 

Less favored countries where, however, evaporation exceeds precipi- 
tation of water are driven to making an impure salt from thé sea by 
allowing it to evaporate in basins in the heat of the sun until it 
crystallizes. This is termed solar salt. 

In England the deposits of salt are not capped with beds of mag- 
nesium and potash salts, but at Stassfurt in Germany there is a great 
thickness of these; and it would seem that in geological times a lake 
approximating closely in composition to sea water had dried up 
completely here leaving everything behind. Stassfurt in consequence 
enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the production of potash salts and of 
bromine. 

The Dead Sea, and certain lakes in America, represent inland seas 
evaporated almost to the point of crystallization in which, however, 
the salts have a different composition than in sea water. Sulfates, 
for example, are absent from the Dead Sea, a fact which makes the 
isolation of the other salts more simple. In such lakes it is possible 
to assume that the salt is derived from rivers or underground springs, 
which themselves pass through and leach out earlier deposits. 

At Seales Lake in California, where evaporation is nearly complete, 
the salt crust has the appearance of a frozen waste and is so hard 
that a motorcar may be safely driven over it. At first potash and 
borax were made from the deposits; a byproduct is burkeite, a remark- 
able double salt of sodium carbonate and sodium sulfate. This lake 
also serves as a source of more than half the world’s very tiny pro- 
duction of lithium salts. Lithium is an odd element; it is allied to 
sodium and is beginning to find commercial applications which will no 
doubt multiply when it is available in quantity at an attractive price. 
Sea water contains about 1 part in 10 million lithium. 


BROMINE 


Apart from the quite minor amount of solar salt produced, the 
mineral reserves of the ocean had not been tapped until a start was 
made with the recovery of bromine in 1924. There is the same element 
of romance in tapping the resources of the ocean as in turning to 
practical use the rare gases of the atmosphere: in both the elements 
sought are present in minute proportions, beth are all around us in 
unlimited quantities. 

Bromine in the past was largely a Stassfurt monopoly and ex- 
pensive; it was used in photography, drugs, and dyestuffs in quan- 
tities measured in pounds rather than tons. The need for it in 


138 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


quantity arose out of the search for substances which could be added 
to petrol to prevent the engines of automobiles knocking. Midgley 
solved this problem with a chemical known as tetraethyl] lead dissolved 
in ethylene bromide—the substance marketed as “Ethyl.” At once 
very large quantities of bromine were needed, and a new cheap source 
out of the control of the monopoly had to be found. 

Work was begun in 1924 by a process which involved the addition 
of aniline to chlorinated sea water to form tribromoaniline. After 
laboratory trials the process was operated on board a boat, the S. S. 
Ethyl, fitted out as a chemical factory. 

This sailed off the coast of North Carolina and the voyage was 
successful though it was not repeated. The experience gained was 
applied to an alternative method which consists in (a) oxidizing 
the bromide in brine with clorine, (0) blowing the free bromine out 
of solution with air, (c)absorbing the bromine with an alkali car- 
bonate solution from which it can be recovered in a commercially 
desirable form. 

Every stage in this process had to be carefully worked out in the lab- 
oratory. Sea water is alkaline, the equivalent of 1 ounce of caustic 
soda in 1,000 tons of water. Even this small quantity gives con- 
ditions unsuitable to the oxidation. Acid must be added, the right 
quantity being 0.27 pound of 96 percent sulfuric acid per ton of sea 
water. These figures are quoted to show the layman how sensitive 
chemical reactions are to small things, in particular to the acid-alkali 
reaction of the medium. The biochemist has of late years discovered 
that the reactions in the living body are even more sensitive to these 
acid-alkali variations. 

The conditions of the operations having been settled by the chemist, 
the next step is for the engineer to design a plant (a) to carry out the 
chemical changes, (0) to bring the water from the sea in the required 
large quantity. 

It requires 4,000 gallons of sea water to yield 1 pound of bromine, so 
that a factory making 15,000 pounds a day must be able to pump 60 
million gallons. The engineering problem of the intake of such quan- 
tities, the freeing of the water from extraneous matter and sedi- 
ment and its delivery continuously to the plant, all at low cost, has 
been one of the first magnitude; it required great ingenuity and fore- 
sight. It is clear that it would not do to put the extracted water back 
in the sea. It has to be discharged some way off, for example, on the 
other side of an isthmus where the set of the currents prevents its 
mixing with the untreated incoming water. Obviously the choice of 
location of a sea-water plant is both all-important and limited. 

When the operations are all finished the bromine is obtained in 
liquid form. Its transport requires special bottles and is costly. It 
is therefore at once converted on the same site into ethylene bromide. 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 139 


The first bromine recovery plant, started in 1934, worked efficiently 
from the outset, producing 15,000 pounds of bromine per day; the 
yields over all were high. Many thousands of tons are now produced 
per annum, and bromine today belongs to the class of substances of 
which the cost is reasonable and the supply assured for all time. The 
chemical engineer and the Dow Chemical Co. have had their first vic- 
tory over the sea. 

Calculations indicate that there are nearly 1 billion tons of bromine 
in the Dead Sea. As this sea is evaporated to the point of crystal- 
lization of the sodium chloride the concentration of bromine is nearly 
90 times that in the seven seas, and the ease and cost of its recovery 
should be less. However, the possibilities of obtaining low costs are 
superior in industrial America to what they are in Palestine; more- 
over, any bromine produced here is a long way from the user. It is 
probable therefore that bromine from the sea will always remain com- 
petitive with that produced in Palestine, while users will have the ad- 
vantage of reasonable prices brought about by such rivalry. 

Dr. Ernst Bergmann in his paper before the recent British Asso- 
ciation Conference on Mineral Resources, reminds us that the Mid- 
dle East shows a certain affinity to bromine. He recalls that the an- 
tique purple, used in the Imperial toga, manufactured in Sidon and 
Tyre, is a coloring matter containing bromine. ‘Tyrian purple is one 
of the few known organic bromine compounds found in a living cell. 
The purple snail from which it was obtained is one of the several 
known strange instances, of which more anon, of selective affinity of 
cells to a special element. 

Dr. Bergmann makes the interesting suggestion that in past ages 
vast numbers of maritime organisms containing bromine have decayed 
in the soil in Palestine, and that today the hot springs of the Sea of 
Galilee derive their bromine from this source. It is probable that all 
the bromine in the Dead Sea is derived from these springs. 


MAGNESIUM 


This success with bromine partly prepared the way for the next 
problem, the recovery of magnesium. On January 21, 1941, the first 
commercial ingot made in America from sea water was produced in 
the plant of the Dow Company at Freeport, Tex. The urge was again 
economic; the demand for magnesium for aircraft parts suddenly 
reached vast proportions, for as much as 1,000 pounds may enter into 
the manufacture of a single plane. 1 yet NE the lightest of metals, 
cost a sovereign a pound in 1915 and barely a sain last year. The 
metal was first made around 1869, mainly as a source of high-intensity 
light for photographic purposes. Later sundry other uses, including 
fireworks, came along. It awaited war to start its use in airplanes, 


140 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


incendiary bombs, and military pyrotechnics. Today tens of thou- 
sands of tons are required. 

Magnesium in combination is one of the most abundant elements 
on the earth’s crust. The most favored source is magnesite, which in 
particular is used for refractories. Other sources are dolomite, which 
consists of calcium and magnesium carbonates, and carnallite from 
Stassfurt, which is a double chloride of magnesium and potassium. 

If the metal is to be made by electrolysis—hitherto the favored 
process—magnesite has to be converted into chloride by briquetting 
the calcined material with carbon and binding substance and exposing 
to the action of chlorine in an electric furnace. Since in the course of 
electrolysis chlorine is evolved, the process becomes in theory cyclic, 
although in practice there is waste through formation of hydrogen 
chloride. 

Faced with the large new requirements, the sea seemed an obvious 
source of magnesium chloride. The knowledge about the intake of 
sea water and the location of a plant was available. In addition, 
cheap power and plentiful supplies of lime, the other necessary raw 
material, were requisites. The latter also came from the sea in the 
form of oyster shells dredged from the bottom of Galveston Bay, 
which, when washed, go straight to the lime kiln. Some 300,000,000 
gallons of sea water per day are drawn into the plant. 

Though in practice the recovery of magnesium metal from sea 
water involved comparatively simple operations chemically, it is far 
from being an easy task economically to utilize a raw material which 
contains only about 1 part of magnesium in 800 of water. Quite 
unusual chemical engineering methods, equipment, and control, had 
to be invented. Such work involves research on the grand scale by 
large teams of chemists and engineers. It is Discovery with a capital 
D, and costs very large sums of money. 

The magnesium is precipitated as hydroxide by means of lime. 
This is collected on special filters and converted into chloride using 
for this operation a 10 percent aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid 
which is largely derived from a later stage of the operation. The 
magnesium chloride is evaporated and dried until anhydrous, when 
it is electrolyzed in suitable cells to produce metallic magnesium. 
Natural gas is used as the source of power and heat. The effluent water 
is discharged 7 miles from the intake, which is almost 30 feet below the 
surface so as to obtain the highest concentration of salts. The current 
of sea water is always in the same direction, which prevents mixing. 
There is a bromine factory on the same site and the two effluents, the 
one acid and the other alkaline, mingle. 

We have been able to describe the work done in the United States 
on these materials since it has been widely published in the technical 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 141 


press. Their manufacture has not been neglected in this country and 
great credit is due to the British Periclase Co. and to Dr. H. H. Chesny, 
and no doubt to others of whom we shall hear more after the war, 
for their achievements. 

There are no oyster shells on the British beach; it was evidently not 
the one chosen by the Walrus and the Carpenter for their walk. But 
there was a convenient source of dolomite which is quarried and 
calcined in shaft kilns and the resulting mixed lime slaked with suf- 
ficient water to give a thin slurry. 

This slurry is allowed to react with sea water previously treated 
and filtered to remove bicarbonate hardness and suspended matter in 
a special reaction vessel. The calcium hydroxide precipitates the 
magnesium salts in the sea as magnesium hydroxide while the mag- 
nesium oxide from the dolomite remains unchanged and in suspension. 
The resultant mixture is pumped into large circular tanks, where the 
magnesia settles out and the spent sea water passes to waste. 

The settled magnesia slurry is filtered off by means of rotary 
vacuum filters, and the paste obtained burned in pulverized-coal-fired 
rotary kilns. The temperature of firing is varied according to whether 
it is desired to produce reactive caustic magnesia for the magnesium 
industry, or dead-burnt magnesium oxide for the manufacture of 
refractories. 

By this ingenious modification magnesium is obtained from dolomite 
and from the sea by one and the same operation. 


POTASSIUM SALTS 


It would be possible to recover a potassium salt from the sea, but 
here the economics are not yet favorable. The main use for potash 
salts is as fertilizers, which command a low price. Moreover, there 
is a source of potash in the Dead Sea, now under rapid development, 
which will insure sufficient supply of these to meet world demand at 
competitive prices and will destroy the Stassfurt monopoly. There 
are also similar sources of supply in the United States. The quantity 
of potassium chloride in the Dead Sea is estimated at 2 billion tons. 

As the concentration of salts is greater at the bottom of the Dead 
Sea than at the surface, the solution is pumped from depth and 
evaporated fractionally in shallow natural pans which have an im- 
pervious clay bottom. First, common salt crystallizes, then a some- 
what impure double salt of potassium and magnesium chloride termed 
carnallite, and finally magnesium chloride; the mother liquors go 
to the bromine plant. The chemists of the Palestine Potash Co. have 
made a very thorough study of the sequence of events involved in the 
evaporation and crystallization, and by an ingenious application of 
the knowledge of the solid equilibria of the salts concerned coupled 


142 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


with first-class chemical engineering technique are able to produce 
highly purified potassium chloride. 

Over 40 years ago the distinguished Dutch chemist, Van’t Hoff, and 
his pupils, made a profound study of the sequence of events on con- 
centrating sea water at 25° C. The order in which the various salts 
are deposited was found to be in very fair agreement with the geologi- 
cal succession as observed at Stassfurt, though there are indications 
that these dried up at a slightly higher temperature. These celebrated 
deposits consist of an immense thickness of rock salt, interspersed at 
fairly regular intervals with narrow bands of anhydrous calcium sulfate 
capped with beds rich in magnesium and potassium salts. The beds 
are obviously of marine origin, but a constant flowing-in of water con- 
taining salts during the period of evaporation must be assumed to 
account for the magnitude of the deposit. The inland sea ultimately 
dried up completely. 

The extensive salt beds in Cheshire have no potassium or magnesium 
salts, and it must be assumed that in this locality the remaining waters 
went elsewhere before final evaporation. 

In the Dead Sea the process of salt accumulation and evaporation 
go on at the same time. The level is roughly constant, though it 
varies a little from season to season and decade to decade. Evapora- 
tion thus keeps pace with the inflow of fresh water. The Jordan and 
other rivers bring in 40,000 tons of potassium chloride per annum. 
The ratio of the various salts remains constant. The relative quanti- 
ties differ from those in the sea and in salt deposits; in particular there 
is no sulfate. 

The magnesium content of the Dead Sea is some eight or nine times 
that of the oceans, but here again it is the relative costs at the two sites 
and the cost of transport to and from them that settle the competitive 
effort. It is quite clear that given a demand for large quantities of 
magnesium its manufacture from the ocean will continue. 

Dr. Bergmann and the Palestine Potash Co. draw an attractive 
picture of the potentialities of establishing a large chemical industry 
there from which the markets in the Middle and Far East can be 
supplied. The factors are there—and who knows what the future 
may produce? 

PHOSPHATES 


It may well be that the minerals in the sea can be considered in two 
classes, namely, (a) those present in constant proportion to each other 
and in relatively large amount, i. e., the salts formed from the elements 
sodium, potassium, magnesium, chlorine, bromine, sulfur in the form 
of sulfates, and (0) those present in traces and though universal are 
possibly in variable amount locally. Fresh supplies of these are being 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 143 


received all the time from the land and returned, as we shall see, to the 
bottom of the ocean. 

Analyses of sea water showing the amount of the rarer minerals 
are so far scanty, and it cannot, for example, be said that a particular 
compound is present everywhere to the same extent. Evidence is 
also lacking whether some of them are accumulating or whether they 
are being deposited either as such or after absorption into the struc- 
ture of some marine organism. The occurrence of minerals in veins 
or lodes in sedimentary rocks gives support to the idea of deposition. 
Moreover, the vast deposits of limestone and chalk so characteristic 
of southern England are all derived from organisms which have 
taken up the traces of calcium salts from the sea. Elsewhere calcium 
has been deposited as sulfate. 

At this stage therefore one can state purely as a working hypothesis 
that while the ocean is constant in composition in regard to its main 
constituents it is variable and even local in regard to the trace 
elements. 

Quite another problem is the fate of those minerals the world 
over which are constantly reaching the sea either from sewage or by 
the leaching out of cultivated lands. While these in the aggregate 
total far less than what is produced by denudation, they are of im- 
portance because they represent the constituents which are of primary 
value to man. 

One of the most interesting of these is phosphate, of which the 
mineral deposits are limited in amount and may well become ex- 
hausted. Many of the agricultural soils of the world are definitely 
short of phosphates and their crop-bearing qualities impaired in 
consequence. A new widely distributed source of phosphate would 
therefore be of great value and importance. 

It has been calculated that the sewage from 5 million people is 
equivalent to 17,000 tons of rock phosphate in a year, and this happens 
to be the quantity present in the annual export of meat from New 
Zealand, which Dominion is the loser of the same amount. The popu- 
lation of Great Britain discards as sewage the equivalent of 150,000 
tons of rock phosphate, most of which reaches the sea. An estimate 
of the annual losses of phosphate from all sources to the sea in the 
United States amounts to the equivalent of 60 million tons of rock. 
The world’s consumption of phosphate rock is said to be 18 million 
tons; there are of course other sources of phosphatic fertilizers. 

The question may well be asked, what is happening to the phos- 
phate; is it being concentrated and removed or deposited? Here is 
an interesting problem for study. The concentrations of nitrates, 
phosphates, and silicates in sea water are subject to considerable 
fluctuation depending on the activity of the marine organisms, and 


144. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


although the absolute figures may appear insignificant these fluctua- 
tions may have a strong effect on the population of the sea. Indeed, 
this is subject to regular cyclic changes very pronounced in planktonic 
forms. 

The annual crop of plankton depends on the amount of phosphates 
and nitrates, and there is an apparent relation beween the quantity 
of phosphate available at the beginning of each year and the number 
of young fish which have had enough food and survived during the 
ensuing summer months. In temperate seas almost all these salts have 
been used up during the summer and continued growth depends on 
new supplies brought up from below by vertical mixing caused by 
convection currents during the winter, when a rather thorough re- 
newal takes place. 

The annual crop of plankton depends on the amount of phosphates 
and nitrates, and there is an apparent relation between the quantity of 
phosphate available at the beginning of each year and the number of 
young fish which have had enough food and survived during the ensu- 
ing summer months. In temperate seas almost all these salts have 
been used up during the summer and continued growth depends on new 
supplies brought up from below by vertical mixing caused. by convec- 
tion currents during the winter, when a rather thorough renewal takes 
place. 

SOFTENING SEA WATER 


The chemist is already searching for materials capable of selectively 
absorbing and retaining substances present in small quantities in 
large volumes of water. Such base-exchanging materials are widely 
used in the softening of hard waters, a process which involves the 
replacement of soap-destroying and scale-forming calcium and mag- 
nesium by relatively innnocuous sodium. Natural zeolites were first 
used for this purpose and later supplemented by artificial zeolites 
and by sulfonated carbonaceous materials. These last offer the addi- 
tional advantage of replacing the calcium or magnesium with hydro- 
gen instead of sodium if desired. In this way the dissolved salts can 
be removed altogether instead of merely replaced. Such a process 
is particularly valuable in water for boilers. They are made by treat- 
ing coal or lignite with strong reagents such as fuming sulfuric acid, 
sulfur trioxide, chromic acid, etc. The active group in these zeolites is 
believed to be a sulfonic acid group. 

Much the same principle explains the action of polyhydric phenol 
formaldehyde resins. These contain hydrogen (in an hydroxyl group) 
which readily goes into solution to replace calcium or sodium ions 
and forms acids. Such resins are reported as physically more stable 
and faster in action than the other softeners mentioned. There is 
another group of resins described as amine-formaldehyde, which 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 145 


achieves actual removal of the acids just mentioned. The mechanism 
is obscure, but it may include both surface absorption and reaction of 
the acids with the amine group. Resin treatment may convert an 
ordinary hard water into something approaching distilled water. 

Naturally experiments have been made along these lines with sea 
water with the hope of being able to convert it into drinking water 
for shipwrecked mariners in apparatus small enough to be carried in 
lifeboats. The amount of salt in the sea makes this problem a very 
difficult one and the solution is not yet in sight. 

It seems clear that in these base exchangers the chemist has useful 
tools to effect the concentration of small quantities of dissolved sub- 
stances. Some technical applications are already known, but we 
would illustrate what it is hoped to achieve by citing some results 
obtained with copper by Professor Furnas and R. H. Beaton working 


at Yale. 
COPPER 


The ideal conditions using carbonaceous zeolites have been deter- 
mined. The absorption for copper is a function of the ratio of cop- 
per ions to hydrogen ion concentrations, or in more simple language 
there are ideal conditions of acidity favoring the transfer of copper 
from solution to zeolite. The collection of copper is complete and 
takes place at a rapid rate of flow of the very dilute solution over 
the columns of the exchanger. The recovery of the copper when the 
zeolite is saturated is effected by fairly strong solutions of sulfuric 
acid. At the same time the zeolite is regenerated for another cycle. 
There remains as final product a strong solution of copper sulfate. 

Putting the results in plain figures rather than in the form favored 
by the chemist, it appears that a solution which contained 1 pound of 
copper in 6,300 pounds of water is turned into one of copper sulfate 
containing 1 pound of copper in 6.87 pounds of water. To do this 
1.54 pounds of sulfuric acid (100 percent strength) are necessary, and 
simple arithmetic indicates that 1 pound of acid performs the same 
duty as the evaporation of 4,200 pounds of water. This illustrates 
the tremendous difference in energy requirements between the base 
exchange process and evaporation for the concentration of very dilute 
solutions and is evidence of the unique possibilities of the use of 
zeolites. 

The Yale achievement of increasing the concentration of copper 
in dilute solutions is rivaled by that of the oyster which we must be 
prepared to treat with greater respect after learning that it gargles 
a barrel of water per day. Around the British Isles and in certain 
sections of the Atlantic coast oysters become green due to the forma- 
tion of a pigment containing copper. The amount of copper which 
an oyster can accumulate is variable; it varies in the Cape Cod variety 


146 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


from 0.16 to 0.24 mg. per oyster, and from 1.24 to 5.12 mg. per oyster 
in Long Island Sound, where the average is 2.5 mg. This last figure 
has enabled someone to calculate that in Long Island Sound the 
oysters accumulate about 7.5 tons of copper every year from the sea. 

The average content of copper in the sea appears to be of the order 
of 0.01 part per 1 million. There is more copper in the fresh water 
coming into Long Island Sound than in the sea; indeed, the amount 
there fluctuates between 1 part per 1 million at high water and 0.5 
part per 1 million at low tide. 

Copper salts apparently have a peculiar effect on oyster larvae, 
inducing their attachment to the substratum and initiating their 
metamorphosis. The result is that the best settling areas are found 
on bottoms affected by fresh water, while natural oyster beds occur 
mainly in the mouths of rivers. It has been estimated in the United 
States that 200 tons of copper are lost in sewage each year per 1 mil- 
lion people, together with 50 tons each of such metals as magnesium, 
lead, aluminium, and titanium. The 10 million people of New York 
City provide on this recovery ample copper for their oysters. 

Copper is well known as the metal in the respiratory pigment, 
haemocyanin, which is present in lobsters, shrimps, crawfish, and 
other shellfish and plays the same part as iron does in haemoglobin, 
the respiratory pigment of human red blood corpuscles. It is found 
in sardines, herrings, salmon, and other sea animals, and is obviously 
quite an essential element in marine life notwithstanding its lowly 
proportion in the sea. 

A considerable proportion of the trace elements seem to be con- 
cerned in the life history of marine organisms. Where there is plenty 
of an element the organisms flourish, where it is scanty they are ab- 
sent. When the organisms flourish they live their allotted span and 
die, their skeletons falling to the depths of the ocean and decom- 
posing into their constituents. Where there are vertical currents the 
trace elements are brought to the surface once more and there is 
renewed growth of organism; when there is no upward current a 
deposit is formed rich in the trace element. New reactions resulting 
in the formation of sedimentary rocks take place. We pass from 
the science of biology to geology. Some of these elements enter direct 
into the structure of the organism, others—in particular the heavy 
metals—are believed to be largely taken out of solution by absorption 
on the surface of the protoplasm, a purely physical phenomenon. 
This applies to gold and silver. 


GOLD 


A matter in which the more credulous portion of the public is inter- 
ested is the possibility of obtaining gold from the sea. Gold is said to 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 147 


be present to the extent of 1 part in 1 billion (1 mg. per cubic meter), 
but the Haber expedition found very much smaller amounts—often 
none. Gold has actually been extracted from the sea during a month’s 
working at one of the American bromine plants, but the cost of doing so 
was several times more than the value of the gold and it would appear 
that it will always be cheaper to mine gold in South Africa and else- 
where even when the present mines are exhausted and the reefs have to 
be followed deeper into the earth at an increased cost of production. 

Gold is probably one of the elements which does not stay in the 
sea, but is being removed by absorption onto the surface of organisms 
and taken down to the bottom. In agreement with this the bottom 
sludges obtained by dredging in certain localities contain very much 
larger quantities of gold than there is in the sea. Indeed, the amount 
is most variable; estimates in the literature vary from 28 to 1,200 
tons of gold in 1 cubic mile of sea. 

One may perhaps answer this interesting question by saying that 
gold will continue to be mined rather than won from the sea, particu- 
larly since it has few uses other than as a financial token. 


IODINE 


An element of universal distribution in air, sea, and land is iodine 
which is of fundamental importance alike to man, animals, and plants. 
It is a constituent of the thyroid gland and if we lack it in sufficient 
quantity we are afflicted by goitre. Many marine plants have the 
power of concentrating it, thus the dry matter of deep-water sea- 
weed, such as Laminaria, contains as much as 0.5 percent. Iodine was 
in fact first discovered by Courtois in 1811 in the ash of sea kelp. 
Kelp, or Varech as it is called in France, has been used for many years 
for the commercial extraction of iodine even though this practice 
cannot compete economically with the production of iodate from the 
caliche in Chile. Certain coral species are said to contain up to 8 
percent of iodine and it is of interest that it is present both here and 
in the bath sponge in the organic state as di-iodo-tyrosine. 

The question of the form of iodine in the sea is still indefinite: it 
may well be organic. The sea contains 0.001 percent and is much 
richer in this rarest of the halogens than the land. It is obviously 
in a continual state of change, being oxidized and reduced, and pass- 
ing into marine plants and animals. When the seaweed moves lazily 
to and fro at our feet large quantities of iodine are being withdrawn 
from circulation. Some of it is constantly being lost through vapori- 
zation into the atmosphere, and this is why people living sufficiently 
near the coast, as the great majority of the population of this island 
do, do not suffer from goitre in the same way as the population of the 
great central plains of the United States. 


148 |§ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
ARSENIC AND CALCIUM 


The arsenic in the sea exists apparently in organic form and, like 
iodine, is concentrated in animals and plants. The lobster has 40-50 
parts per 1 million and Laminaria twice as much. 

There are many points of interest connected with the calcium in the 
sea; in fresh water it is the most abundant of the three cations—cal- 
cium, magnesium, and sodium; in sea water it is the least abundant 
as all the time animals and plants are removing it, a fact to which the 
white cliffs of Dover bear abundant testimony. It is related to the 
carbon dioxide content of the oceans which is some 15 to 30 times the 
amount present in the atmosphere, and it may be well that the carbon 
dioxide content of the air is regulated by the oceans acting as a reser- 
voir. There is a continual exchange between the air and the surface 
of the sea which, among other things, controls the acidity of the sea 
water to which much of the life of the ocean is acutely sensitive. 
Further, in the sea, as on land, plants use carbon dioxide as the basic 
source of carbon for the building up of organic compounds. 

When the carbon dioxide in solution in sea water is reduced, the 
conditions are favorable for the deposition of calcium carbonate. The 
building of shells by animals which live on the sea bottom and of the 
smallest Protozoa is an interesting subject. It accounts for an an- 
nual deposition of 1,400 million tons of calcium. Shells are of two 
classes, those containing calcium carbonate alone or with magnesium 
carbonate, and those containing calcium phosphate. As yet we have 
no clue to the reactions involved in building shells. One minor point 
is that in tropical waters the percentage of magnesium carbonate is 
higher. 

The relative abundance of the alkaline earths in the sea in the order 
calcium, strontium, barium, is about 4000:100:1. The temperature of 
the water may also have an effect on the presence of strontium in- 
stead of, or together with, calcium in shells. In very cold waters 
strontium may replace calcium and there is a report of a radiolarian 
from the Antarctic whose shell is composed almost entirely of stron- 
tium carbonate. In other shells both are present in much the same 
proportion as that in which they occur in sea water. 

The sea is the greatest potential source of raw materials. It con- 
tains traces of every element ready to hand so that marine plants or 
animals can adapt them to their purpose. There is true symbiosis be- 
tween animal, vegetable, and mineral. Our approach to this subject 
has been from the mineral aspect, to ascertain what minerals can be 
economically won from the sea in competition with land sources of 
the same materials deposited in bygone geologic ages. The sea gives 
us a great quantity of food in fish of all kinds. The study of these is 


THE SEA AS A STOREHOUSE—ARMSTRONG 149 


an important branch of science, for it is certain that in times to come 
we shall not only require more fish but make better use of the catch. 
The great medicinal value of the liver oils as a source of vitamins is 
an example. Less use is so far made of seaweeds, but here also re- 
search is beginning to show that novel and perhaps useful and valuable 
substances are present, and before long there will have been worked 
out methods of harvesting the weed and fabricating diverse products 
from it. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Armstrong PLATE 2 


1. SETTLING TANK, WHICH HAS A CAPACITY OF 2,000,000 GALLONS OF WATER 
AND APPROXIMATELY 1,000 TONS OF MAGNESIUM HYDROXIDE. 


(Courtesy of British Periclase Co.) 


i 


2. THE ROTARY KILNS, WHICH ARE 160 FEET LONG AND 10 FEET IN DIAMETER, 
EACH BURNS APPROXIMATELY 300 TONS CF MAGNESIA PER WEEK. 


(Courtesy of British Periclase Co.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Armstrong PEATE S 


; 


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A REFINERY IN SOUTH PALESTINE. 
(Courtesy of Palestine Potash, Ltd.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Armstrong PLATE 4 


EVAPORATION PANS IN THE PALESTINE POTASH PLANT. 
(Courtesy of Palestine Potash, Ltd.) 


PROGRESS IN NEW SYNTHETIC TEXTILE FIBERS’ 


By HERBERT R. MAUERSBERGER 
Technical Editor, Rayon Textile Monthly 


It is again my privilege to report on the subject of Progress in New 
Synthetic Textile Fibers. My previous report made on October 17, 
1940, has been reproduced in the General Appendix of the 1941 An- 
nual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, showing that our Gov- 
ernment takes cognizance of our activities in identification, nomen- 
clature, and technology of our new textile fibers and materials. It 
also appeared in the American Society for Testing Materials Stand- 
ards on Textile Materials.” 

The information in the present paper is an addition to that given in 
the previous one. Much of the previous information is today quite 
inadequate, so fast has this industry grown and these developments 
taken place. My information has been obtained from sources be- 
lieved to be authentic and reliable. Some of these developments are 
already well known and are only included for the record; others have 
taken place quietly and may have escaped notice or attention. 

Some of them are gigantic and could be dealt with at great length, 
which is not permitted here, whereas others are still in the formative 
stage and data must be withheld owing to the war. No matter what 
your own experience is with these individual fibers, or what your opin- 
ion of them may be, remember at all times that practically all these 
fibers, yarns, and materials are custom-made to meet any domestic 
technological demand that may arise. Their versatility of use and 
flexible properties have been of tremendous value in the war effort 
and will be after the war. 


IMPORTANCE IN WAR EFFORT 


Even in your fondest dreams could you imagine that insect and 
mosquito screens could be woven actually better with a synthetic 
monofilament yarn than with copper wire? Again, just imagine for 
a second where we would be in this war if it had not been for nylon 


1 Presented at the March 1943 meeting of Committee D-13 on Textile Materials. Re- 
printed by permission from Amer. Soc. for Testing Materials Bull. No. 122, May 1943. 
? Abstracted in Amer, Soc. for Testing Materials Standards on Textile Materials, p. 351, 
October 1941, 
151 


152 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


parachutes and shroud lines, high-tenacity rayon bomb chutes, 
“Bubblfil” life preservers, Vinyon screen printing cloths, nylon tooth 
brushes, rayon paint brushes, and Velon or plastic-coated window 
screens ? 

These certainly are not laboratory or experimental ghosts or guinea 
pigs; they are absolute realities and accomplished facts! A fine 
tribute to American ingenuity and the product of arduous and per- 
sistent research by American chemists, chemical engineers, and tech- 
nologists. 

Time and space limitations preclude the inclusion in this paper of 
many technical details, and only the most important and outstanding 
advances in new synthetic fibers can be given. Only those fibers 
that have gone beyond the experimental stage and are in actual pro- 
duction now or will be immediately after the war are dealt with. 

Nothing new or of interest can be reported on nylon, fibroin, fibers 
from corn, chitin, ossein, lichenin, Iceland moss, alginates, or agar- 
agar. There are, however, developments of great significance in the 
protein-base fibers such as casein and soybean, which have been de- 
veloped to a considerable extent in the past 3 years. There has also 
been a rapid advance in the vinyl resin group and in the thermoplastic 
resin groups. 

THERMOPLASTIC RESINS 


When Dow Chemical Co. produced saran in 1939 (mentioned only 
briefly in my 1940 paper), no one believed that it would have any 
significant possibilities in the textile industry. It has seen many new 
textile applications since then. 

The raw materials for these monofilament yarns are a group of 
resins from unsymmetrical dichlorethylene, known as vinylidene 
chloride resins, made from petroleum and brine. Ethylene is made 
by cracking petroleum, while chlorine comes from the electrolysis of 
brine. They are combined to form trichlorethane, which is converted 
with lime into the vinylidene chloride monomer. This product can 
be readily polymerized to form the long-linear-straight chain poly- 
mers. By careful selection of copolymers and control of the poly- 
merization conditions, many different polymers can be formed. These 
resins range from a flexible, moderately soluble material, having a 
melting point of about 158° F. to a hard, tough thermoplastic, having 
a softening point of 350° F. or more. The basic resin is odorless, 
tasteless, and a nontoxic powder. 

One of the several methods of extrusion is the one of crystal orien- 
tation, which produces long continuous monofilaments, tapes, bands, 
and ether shapes. The oriented form is produced by extrusion, sub- 
sequent plastic deformation as by stretching, and by heat treatment. 


SYNTHETIC TEXTILE FIBERS—-MAUERSBERGER 153 


The material may be heat treated after or during stretching to affect 
the desired degree of crystallization. It produces monofilament yarns 
of considerable toughness and tensile strength, abrasion resistance, 
and chemical resistance to water, acids, alkalies, and many organic 
solvents. 

Little of textile interest was done with these yarns until Mr. Sted- 
man, of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, took up the 
development and gave the name “Velon” to these products and estab- 
lished the Velon Department. A unit for production was set up at 
the Worldbestos Plant in Paterson, N..J., where monofilament yarns 
are being made as fine as 0.007 inch in diameter running from 10,000 
to 12,000 yards to the pound. Experiments for the extrusion of 
multifilament yarns are under way and it is expected that yarns as 
fine as 100 denier can be produced eventually. 

At first, flat continuous bands were made to imitate rattan in the 
seat covers of buses and subway cars, and next, shoetop fabrics were 
woven for evening and sport shoes, using the Velon threads as warp 
and cotton yarns for filling. 

As soon as round, monofilament yarns of sufficient fineness were 
produced, Mr. Stedman interested August Hafner, president of Haf- 
ner Associates, who is a well-known specialty and experimental weav- 
ing expert in this country, to work out the textile possibilities. Mr 
Hafner could see the potentialities of these yarns at once, and sug- 
gested their use for handbag, trimming, and millinery fabrics of un- 
usual color, design, and weave variations. 

Then came the war with its restrictions on copper, steel, aluminum, 
and metals in general. This brought about replacements of metals 
in making mosquito and fly screens. These fly screens are now made 
successfully with vinylidene chloride resin yarns in 16 by 16, 12 by 12, 
and even 20 by 21 mesh. Window screens made from this yarn are 
supposed to provide better vision due to their greater transparency. 
At present, it is restricted for civilian use and its application in dress 
goods and wearing apparel will have to await the end of the war. 


NEW ELASTIC VINYON E 


Late last year, the Vinyon Department of American Viscose Corpo- 
ration in addition to Vinyon filament yarn, explained in my earlier 
paper, offered a new vinyl resin yarn with considerable elastic prop- 
erties known as Vinyon E. It possesses many characteristics of rub- 
ber and opens an entirely new field of applications. For some pur- 
poses it has been found superior to rubber, because it has exhibited 
better resistance to sunlight, tropical heat, and humidity and is not 
affected by body acids. At present it is restricted to military uses, 
where it replaces rubber. However, after the war we will see many 


154 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


textile applications such as elastic webbing, tapes, cords, girdles, 
brassieres, surgical stockings, suspenders, and supporters, and many 
articles now made of sponge rubber. 


CASHIN FIBER 


The next remarkable development has been in casein fiber. The 
National Dairy Products Corporation has further developed and made 
remarkable progress with its trade-named product “Aralac.” The 
company has now formed Aralac, Inc., an entirely new division of the 
National Dairy Products Corporation, which has increased its pro- 
duction almost eightfold since 1940. 

The original 4,000-pound-a-day plant at Bristol, R. I., was moved in 
July 1941 to Taftville, Conn., with an output of 15,000 pounds per 
day. The product, originally used by the felt-hat trade, was then 
investigated by textile manufacturers. The advent of the war with its 
WPB restrictions on civilian wool use boomed interest in Aralac, so 
that in 1942 the plant capacity was doubled to 30,000 pounds per day. 
The felt usage being relatively stable, a much larger percentage of this 
fiber now goes to the textile trade. 

Aralac is offered in finenesses corresponding approximately to 50’s 
60’s, and 70’s wool grades and in staple lengths from 1% to 6 inches. 
Specialty uses include stuffing for pillows, comforters, and quilted 
goods, interlining for cool-weather garments, and protection for 
milady’s hair, when it is given a permanent wave. The last-mentioned 
is in the form of a highly crimped combed top, and is known under 
the trade name “Wavecrepe.” 

Casein, the basic raw material from which Aralac is made, is a by- 
product of the milk industry. National milk production is upward 
of 117 billion pounds of milk annually. About 50 percent of this is 
skimmed for its cream. The skim milk thus formed yields over 
1 billion pounds of casein a year or over 3 million pounds of casein a 
day, a pound of casein making roughly 1 pound of Aralac fiber. 

Casein fiber, unlike nylon, Vinyon, and acetate rayon, is made by a 
wet spinning process, somewhat similar to viscose rayon. Even these 
two processes are similar only at one point, namely, the extrusion 
through a spinnerette into a coagulating bath. Before this point, 
the Aralac process is much simpler than viscose; afterward, it is 
many times more complicated. The casein is dispersed in water by 
means of an alkali; the dispersion is clarified, spun, coagulated, and 
the tow treated to give the filaments flexibility and hot-water resist- 
ance. The fiber is then washed, dried, cut to staple length, and baled 
for shipment to textile mills. 

The properties of Aralac are in some instances similiar to those of 
wool and it is being used entirely in mixtures with wool, rayon, and 


SYNTHETIC TEXTILE FIBERS—-MAUERSBERGER 155 


cotton fibers. It is not affected by organic solvents. It is not thermo- 
plastic below charring temperatures. It withstands sulfuric-acid car- 
bonization as well as wool. Its alkali resistance at higher temperatures 
is somewhat lower, so low temperatures and mild alkaline or neutral 
detergents are recommended for scouring and washing. Considerable 
research has been done on dyeing this fiber and the dyeing problem 
is now well in hand. 

Uniformity has made rapid strides and is now well under control. 
Being an animal base, it burns with the same odor and bead formation 
as wool and silk. Its strength, both dry and wet, is the same as last 
reported, about 60 and 20 percent, respectively, that of wool. Regain 
at 70° F. and 65 percent relative humidity is 12.6 percent. Commer- 
cial regain is established at 13 percent. 

The largest textile use of Aralac at present is in dress goods, but it 
is expanding into other uses, where a resilient, lofty hand is desired. 
The hat trade absorbs large quantities and practically every man’s felt 
hat in this country and Canada, which has been made within the past 
3 years contains some Aralac fiber. 

It looks as if this fiber will go far, especially under present war 
conditions and with pressing needs for fiber conservation in the textile 
industry. 

SOYBEAN FIBER 


Ford Motor Co. of Dearborn, Mich., has considerably enlarged 
the production of this staple fiber which was explained quite fully 
in my 1940 paper. The company has now given this staple fiber 
the trade name “Soylon,” and I understand is offering it to the cotton 
and worsted spinning, weaving, and knitting trade in volume. Robert 
A. Boyer has been in charge of this development at Dearborn and 
reports that the new plant has now reached 5,000 pounds a day or 
1,825,000 pounds annually. All machinery and equipment were 
designed by Ford engineers and are supposed to incorporate the 
latest mass-production principles and devices. The fiber has been 
improved in strength and other physical, chemical, and microscopical 
properties. 

PEANUT PROTEIN FIBER 


It appears that casein of animal origin and soybean of vegetable 
base points to the future use of other vegetable proteins for textile 
fiber manufacture. An instance is a textile staple fiber from peanut 
protein. 

Reports indicate that Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., of Glas- 
gow, Scotland, has done considerable research work, and D. K. Baird 


*Since delivery of this paper Ford Motor Co. has sold this entire equipment to The 
Drackett Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has discontinued the manufacture of this fiber. 


156 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


of the above company brought a sample of peanut protein fiber and 
cloth (made of 50 parts peanut fiber and 50 parts wool) to this 
country in 1939. 

I am informed by the New York office of Imperial Chemical In- 
dustries, Litd., that this work is at present still in the experimental 
stage. There has been no commercial development of the fiber in 
England or in any other country, neither could they state when such 
commercial development is likely to be achieved. 

The only public knowledge of this work is in United States patent 
No. 2,230,624, applied for on February 4, 1939, and granted on Febru- 
ary 4, 1941, to Andrew McLean, Saltscoats, Scotland, and assigned 
to Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., England. There are seven 
claims. 

From what I have seen in very small samples the fibers have an 
excellent appearance, are softer than wool and fine, and take dyes 
even better than wool. It might be stated also that the above 
company has produced satisfactory fiber from castor seed and edestin, 
a crystalline globulin found in many edible seeds such as wheat, 
rye, maize, etc. This indicates that we may see more of these 
protein fibers after the war. 


PLASTIC-COATED TEXTILE YARNS 


Another unusual development, which has gone forward quietly and 
is now assuming considerable proportions and importance in the war 
effort, is the coating of cotton, rayon, and fiber-glass yarns with in- 
finitely fine coatings of plastic solutions to give them added and almost 
unlimited strength, brightness or dullness, color, to make them com- 
pletely waterproof and moisture-resistant, flame-retarding or self-ex- 
tinguishing, or to make them resistant to mild acids, perspiration, oil, 
and grease, as desired. This may seem difficult of accomplishment but 
is now a reality and has found many interesting and technical applica- 
tions in the textile industry. 

It is the invention of two Frenchmen, Roumazeilles and Girard, and 
was patented in France in 1925 and in the United States in 1930. The 
American patent rights to the now-called Plexon Process were pur- 
chased by Freydberg Bros.-Strauss in 1938. The first Plexon yarns 
were introduced here in 1939 after making many improvements in the 
methods and machinery required. At first quite expensive, the speeding 
up of the process and finding suitable and practical plastic formula- 
tions resulted in price reductions, which now brings these yarns within 
reach of many new applications. 

In 1942 the entire procedure was revamped again, both as to ma- 
chine construction and speed of production, so that today these yarns 


SYNTHETIC TEXTILE FIBERS—-MAUERSBERGER L57 


are made five times as fast as on the original French machine, a tribute 
to American engineering practice and genius. 

It is possible by this process to apply as few coatings as 6 or as many 
as 24, depending on the ultimate use of the thread. It is possible, for 
instance, to make a plastic-coated yarn as fine as 0.008 inch in diameter 
and up to approximately 0.09 inch in diameter. The dimension of 
the uncoated yarn could be almost anything within this range. It is 
possible to get an absolutely round thread by using graduated round 
disks. It is also possible to obtain different shapes such as elliptical, 
triangular, or square threads by using dies shaped to these forms. The 
process also envisions the application of plastic coatings and impreg- 
nations to flat tapes, bands, cords, and even wires. 

In addition to shaping the coating, the yarns can be made in various 
finishes. They can be made stiff or soft, or any graduation in between. 
They can be made transparent, translucent, or opaque, smooth or rough, 
by changing the plastic coating. Color ranges take in the entire scope 
of pigments available, the current color line consisting of more than 
120 different shades. Such plastic-coated yarns can be made com- 
pletely waterproof, moisture-resistant, verminproof, weatherproof, 
rotproof, flameproof, as well as resistant to mild acids, perspiration, 
oil, grease, gasoline, and even to withstand extremes of temperatures 
as in tropical or Arctic climates. 

Such plastic-coated yarns can be and have been woven, knitted, 
braided, twisted, plaited, or crocheted into many types of sheer and 
dress materials, drapery, auto upholstery, slip covers, curtains, hand- 
bags, and shoe fabrics. A notable contribution to the war effort was 
made by developing a special type of coated yarn as a complete sub- 
stitute for steel and copper wire in the weaving of insect and fly screens. 
Through intensive research a Plexon wire yarn was perfected, which 
used noncritical materials both in the support (a cotton yarn) and in 
the chemical formulation of the coating. A stiff, wirelike coated 
cotton yarn was introduced to the insect-screen industry, woven on 
ordinary wire looms without many change-overs or adjustments. The 
resultant insect screen was tested by the National Bureau of Standards 
and found completely satisfactory. These screens will not rust, can 
withstand high tropical temperatures, and require no painting, lac- 
quering, or brushing, and are in actual use now. 

While there are several other developments, most of these are in the 
formative or experimental stages, and they may not bear fruit until 
sometime after the war. However, they bear watching. It may be 
pointed out here that America at this rate need never again experience 
a shortage of textile fibers will have a greater diversification of 
fibers for every purpose, demand, or use after this war. 


158 |§ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


NEW CLASSIFICATION OF MAN-MADE FIBERS 


Concurrent with these facts given in this and my previous paper 
and as a summary thereto, I wish to present a new classification for all 
man-made fibers, which, I believe, will aid in clarifying this picture 
and serve to place the fibers in a logical grouping. 

In the past few years, it has become more and more apparent that 
the word “synthetic” is not the best or an all-inclusive word for the 
fibers I have discussed but has been used for lack of another or more 
suitable word or words. It has become very clear to me that we have 
now two distinct types or groups of man-made fibers. 

One large group distinctly derives from natural sources such as wood 
pulp, cotton linters, cow’s milk, soybeans, peanuts, and silicate glass. 
I should like to term these “regenerated natural fibers.” (See fig. 1.) 
They are not really synthetic at all. The dictionary defines synthetic as 
“of or pertaining to synthesis” and again synthesis “is the art or 
process of making a compound by combining elementary ingredients.” 

Furthermore, I suggest that these regenerated natural fibers be 
broken down into three distinct subdivisions according to the bases 
from which they originate, namely, (a) cellulosic bases, (6) protein 
bases, (¢) mineral or inorganic bases. 

Under the cellulosic bases we have, first, the viscose and cuprate; 
second, the cellulose esters; and third, the cellulose ethers, all in fila- 
mentous and fibrous conditions. 

Under the protein bases, we have, first, the animal protein fibers, 
namely, casein and Aralac; and second, the vegetable protein fibers, 
where we have soybean and peanut fibers and others. 

Under the mineral or inorganic bases, we have fiber glass (filament 
and staple) and the mineral wools, such as rock wool, glass wool, and 
slag wool. 

None of these products or fibers are made by true synthesis, there- 
fore should not be termed synthetic fibers at all. I should like to 
recommend that we drop the word “synthetic” entirely for this group 
at least. I merely suggested the words “regenerated natural fibers” 
because to regenerate means “to produce anew, to give new life, 
strength, or vigor to, to reproduce.” Is that not exactly what we do 
with these fibers?) If someone can think of a more appropriate word, 
I should be delighted to substitute it for the above. 

In the second main group of man-made fibers belong all filaments 
and fibers produced by a combination of elementary or complex chemi- 
cals through synthesis, polymerization, copolymerization, heat treat- 
ments, stretch and setting operations, all of which are complicated, 
strictly chemical processes. Such materials as nylon, Vinyon, saran, 


159 


SYNTHETIC TEXTILE FIBERS—-MAUERSBERGER 


SNaIdvLiNe 


uageny 


SNOSYVD 
~OUdAH 


‘S19QY IPBUI-ULIM JO UOI}BOISSv[D MON—'T AOD] 


STOOM 
TWHININ 


NIS3Y JILSWId = = 3asva 
~OWUSHL SY3LS3-A10d SGINV-A10d WUaNIW 


Suagl4 GAZISAHLNAS 


Sd3agl4 SJOVA-NVW 


NYSILYOI IVN3L-IH | 
NOAVY NOAWY 
UIOH 


a TaVL3939A WWINY 


asva 
N!ZLOUd 


NOAVY 


asva 
3S071N1139 


SH3dI4 TWUNLYN 
G3aLVYAN3934uN 


160 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Velon, and synthetic rubber yarns belong to this group. I should like 
to suggest the words “synthesized fibers” for this group, instead of 
synthetic fibers, although the latter could be used here justifiably. 

This second main group I should like to subdivide, for the present at 
least, first, into the polyamids, which cover Du Pont’s nylon filaments, 
staple fiber and bristles; second into the polyesters, which cover 
Vinyon filament and Vinyon E, the new elastic yarn; third, into the 
thermoplastic resins, under which would come saran, Velon, Permalon, 
and others; fourth and last, the hydrocarbons, which are to include 
all new synthetic rubber filaments, threads, and cords in full develop- 
ment now. 

This classification separates the main products, and subordinates 
none. I recommend it to you for consideration. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY ? 


By Wirtit1AmM B. Hrroy 
Director of Foreign Production, Petroleum Administration for War 


INTRODUCTION 


Among the various substances which are found in the earth’s crust, 
petroleum and natural gas occupy a unique position in that they are 
combustible fluids. The highly distinctive and interesting properties 
of petroleum would alone have led to close investigation of its origin 
and occurrence, but its widespread distribution and great usefulness 
to mankind have made it the objective of many lines of scientific 
research and have gained for petroleum geology a leading position in 
geologic science. 

The geology of petroleum may be considered from either of two 
standpoints. In the field of economic geology it has become one of 
the most important branches and has attracted to it the largest group 
of specialists concerned with any mineral resource. Apart from its 
economic importance and in its proper relation to other divisions of 
geologic science, petroleum geology may be regarded as a branch of 
sedimentary petrology, coordinate with hydrology or the geology 
of coal deposits. 

A distinction may be made between the science of petroleum geology 
and the art of oil finding and development. The latter lies in the 
field of applied science or engineering. ‘The line between the two is 
not sharply drawn, and the association between the science and the 
art is so intimate that the advance of both has been hand in hand. 
The need for advancing the art has stimulated the progress of the 
science. New scientific concepts have soon been tried out in practice. 
As a part of a survey of the advances made in geologic science during 
the last half century it is fitting that this account of the progress in 
petroleum geology should emphasize the scientific rather than the 
engineering aspects, and the writer has approached the subject from 
that direction. Geographic distribution of petroleum deposits and 
other matters which are primarily economic in character will not be 
considered in this paper. 


1Reprinted by permission from Fiftieth Anniversary Volume, Geological Society of 
America, June 1941. 


161 


162 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Petroleum geology is, in point of age, one of the younger divisions 
of geologic science. It has not attained the senatorial dignity of 
paleontology nor even the maturity of the geology of ore deposits. 
It spans but little more than the half century of American geology 
that this symposium commemorates. Some eminent living petroleum 
geologists were born before the first oil well was drilled in Pennsyl- 
vania in 1859. Petroleum geology is still making the rapid strides 
of youth. 

The writer is faced with difficulties in making proper acknowledg- 
ment of his deep indebtedness to his professional fellows. The ideas 
of others have been incorporated in this paper without hesitation in 
an endeavor to present as completely as space permits the progress 
and status of petroleum geology. Where the writer is conscious of 
having drawn on specific sources he has endeavored, through appro- 
priate reference, to give due credit. If, unconsciously, he has failed 
to do so, indulgence is asked. Grateful acknowledgment is made to 
Dr. L. C. Snider for constructive criticism. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY IN 1890 


GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 


In the geologic world of 50 years ago two men, Edward Orton and 
Israel C. White, were the foremost authorities on the geology of 
petroleum. Both were original Fellows of the Geological Society 
of America, Orton having served on the committee which drafted the 
constitution and White on the first committee on publications. The 
first paper on petroleum geology published by the society was by 
Orton (1890), and, in the discussion of that paper, Dr. W J McGee 
(1890), of the United States Geological Survey, paid the following 
tribute to the work of these two men: 

But within the past 3 years the laws governing the origin, distribution, and 
pressure of rock gas have become as well known as are the laws governing 
artesian water supply; so that today the geologist prognosticates rock gas nearly 
if not quite as definitely and certainly as he prognosticates artesian water; and 
it is not only just to our associates and to American science to say that this 
great advance in geologic science was due almost wholly to two of our fellows— 
to Professor Orton, the author of the communication before us, and to Professor 
White, who has already spoken upon it. To these men we are indebted for this 
unparalleled stride in American geology. Others, indeed, contributed facts, but 
they philosophy ; and science was immeasurably enriched by their contribution. 

To the papers of White and Orton one must therefore turn for the 
ablest presentation of the geology of petroleum and natural gas of 
that day. 

Peckham (1884) had compiled for the Tenth Census a summary of 
the previous literature on the origin and accumulation of petroleum, 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 163 


but it remained for Orton (1888) to publish the first treatise which 
critically studied and compared the evidence and reached consistent 
conclusions on this subject. As this report best presents the state 
of knowledge of petroleum geology as of 50 years ago, its conclusions 
will be extensively quoted. 


ORIGIN 


After reviewing the various theories that had been advanced by geol- 
ogists and chemists to account for the origin of petroleum and natural 
gas, Orton presented the following summary (1888, pp. 82, 83) : 

1. Petroleum is derived from organic matter. 

2. It is much more largely derived from vegetable than from animal substances. 

3. Petroleum of the Pennsylvania type is derived from the organic matter of 
bituminous shales and is of vegetable origin. 

4, Petroleum of the Canada type is derived from limestones, and is probably of 
animal origin. 

5. Petroleum has been produced at normal rock temperatures (in Ohio fields) 
and is not a product of destructive distillation of bituminous shales. 

6. The stock of petroleum in the rocks is already practically complete. 

After showing that petroleum is almost universally present in small 
quantities throughout the limestones and shales of Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, he concluded: 

It is obvious that the total amount of petroleum in the rocks underlying the 
surface of Ohio is large beyond computation, but in its diffused and distributed 
state, it is entirely without value. It must be accumulated in rocks that serve as 
reservoirs before it becomes of economic interest. 


RESERVOIRS 


He then summarized the existing knowledge concerning petroleum 
reservoirs. As to sandstone reservoirs, he contrasted those of Pennsy]l- 
vania, as described by Carll, with those of Ohio. The Venango sands 
of Pennsylvania were standstones of medium or coarse grain, or even 
in some cases conglomerates, ranging from a shell to 100 feet in thick- 
ness. The productive fields were found to extend in length for a score 
or more miles in some cases, while their width was confined to 1 or 2 
miles. The reservoirs were lenticular in transverse section. The 
coarser the sand and the more open, the greater the amount of oil; and, 
in like manner, the thicker the stratum, the larger was its production 
likely to be, other things being equal. The sandstone reservoir of east- 
ern Ohio was “a stratum of sandstone that rests on and is covered by 
shales, but the stratum, so far from being lenticular in character, is 
wonderfully persistent, though varying in thickness and grain from 
point to point and occasionally nearly disappearing for short spaces.” 
He concluded his remarks on sandstones as reservoirs with the 
following: 


164 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


In all of these fields [Pennsylvania, New York, and eastern Ohio], without im- 
portant exception standstones buried in shales have proved to be the reservoirs 
of oil and gas when the latter are found in large quantity. The overlying shale 
is the cover or roof of the reservoir; the underlying shale appears to be the source 
from which the bituminous products are derived. 

As to limestone reservoirs, Orton was more fully informed than any 
geologist of his time, in view of his studies of the Trenton. The fol- 
lowing is quoted from the same report (p. 86) : 

The limestone has been penetrated for about 550 feet without being exhausted. 
Through most, if not all of its extent, it is petroliferous, as is shown by the 
drillings, but the accumulated stocks of both oil and gas are always found in the 
uppermost beds of the stratum, and generally not more than 15 feet below its 
upper surface. * * * ‘The oil rock carries, at a lower level than that in which 
the oil is found, but sometimes dangerously near, a brine of unusual character. 
It has, in fact, the composition of a bittern, or a water left over from the con- 
centration of ordinary brine. * * * ‘The facts as to the occurrence of oil and 
gas in this stratum seem reconcilable with the theory that they have risen through 
the limestone rock until they find themselves arrested in their ascent by the 
overlying shales, and their accumulation therefore takes place at this point. 


PERMEABILITY 


Orton had noted the difference in permeability of these main classes 
of oil reservoirs and also the variations which occurred ineach. It had 
been early established in Pennsylvania that different portions of the 
oil sands communicated with some degree of freedom, for adjacent wells 
were found to affect each other’s yields. As an example, he cites the 
Bradford sand and its division into gas, oil, and salt-water zones, the 
gas holding the highest and the salt water the lowest levels, and found 
“the conclusion well-nigh irresistible that the entire rock is permeable 
and that, in the course of ages, the various contents have been differenti- 
ated as we now find them, under the influence of gravitation.” In con- 
trast, he found that in other areas “there was no necessary and absolute 
connection between different portions of an oil sand”; the stratum 
might be divided into lenticular masses which might be nearly or en- 
tirely disconnected. “The rapid changes in thickness of the oil-sand 
in adjacent wells furnishes conclusive proof upon this point. We can 
follow the stratum down to a feather edge by these records.” In the 
Berea sand of eastern Ohio he observed that such interruptions occurred 
frequently. “Communication through a few square miles of the rock 
can be occasionally inferred, but beyond this we have, thus far, found 
no warrant for going.” It was Orton’s observation that in the lime- 
stone reservoirs the same freedom of communication did not exist as 
in the sandstones. He noted, however, that the gas wells at Findlay 
affected each other noticeably. He recognized that there could not 
be as free communication through massive limestones as through sand- 
stones. In the case of sandstones, however, he did not apparently 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 165 


realize that lack of porosity was one of the reasons for lack of com- 
munication but rather attributed it to changes in thickness and lensing. 

The presence of an approximately impervious roof over the oil reser- 
voir was, to Orton, the primary requisite of oil accumulation. Source 
beds were plentiful and widely distributed, and various kinds of rocks 
were suitable as reservoirs, but “more interest centers in the roof shales 
or cover than in any other part of the system.” The Utica and Hud- 
son River shales overlying the Trenton, the Niagara shale overlying 
the Clinton, and the Cuyahoga shale overlying the Berea were con- 
vincing examples. “It is apparent that the composition and order 
of arrangement of a series of strata have a vitally important relation 
to the accumulation of oil and gas that may take place within it.” 

Orton accepted the conclusion of Carll (1880) that the yield of oil 
wells was fully accounted for by the presence of the oil in the pores of 
the reservoir and that there was no necessity for resorting to other ex- 
planations, such as “crevices” in the rocks, to account for their 
productivity. 

STRUCTURE 


The principles of petroleum geology which have just been outlined 
appear to have been quite generally accepted by the geologists who 
were contemporaries of Orton. But in the field of the relation of 
structure to the accumulation of petroleum there was dissension of the 
first order. 

I. C. White was connected with the Second Pennsylvania Geological 
Survey from 1875 to 1883, when he resigned and entered commercial 
work. Two years later (1885a) he published his epochal statement 
advocating the anticlinal theory of oil accumulation. The observation 
that accumulations of 011 were associated with anticlinal axes had been 
made 25 years before by several geologists, including Hunt (1861), 
Rogers (1860), and Logan, but their opinions had been forcefully 
opposed by the Director of the Pennsylvania Survey, J. P. Lesley, and 
probably had little influence on oil discovery or development. So im- 
portant was White’s revival of this theory that Orton (1888, p. 93) pro- 
claimed that his applications of the theory “mark a new period in our 
study of the geology of oil and gas.” The following quotation gives 
White’s (1885a, pp. 521-522) views in his own words. 

After visiting all the great gas wells that had been struck in western Pennsyl- 
vania and West Virginia, and carefully examining the geological surroundings of 
each, I found that every one of them was situated either directly on, or near, the 
crown of an anticlinal axis, while wells that had been bored in the synclines on 
either side furnished little or no gas, but in many cases large quantities of salt 
water. Further observation showed that the gas wells were confined to a narrow 
belt, only one-fourth to 1 mile wide, along the crests of the anticlinal folds. These 
facts seem to connect gas territory unmistakably with the disturbance in the 
rocks caused by their upheaval into arches, but the crucial test was yet to be 

566766—44—12 


166 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


made in the actual location of good gas territory on this theory. During the 
last 2 years, I have submitted it to all manner of tests, both in locating and 
condemning gas territory, and the general result has been to confirm the anti- 
clinal theory beyond a reasonable doubt. 

But while we can state with confidence that all great gas wells are found 
on the anticlinal axis, the converse of this is not true, viz, that great gas wells 
may be found on all anticlinals. In a theory of this kind, the limitations be- 
come quite as important as, or even more so than, the theory itself; and hence I 
have given considerable thought to this side of the question, having formulated 
them into three or four general rules (which include practically all of the limita- 
tions known to me, up to the present time, that should be placed on the state- 
ment that large gas wells may be obtained on anticlinal folds) as follows: 

(a) The arch in the rocks must be one of considerable magnitude; (6) A 
coarse or porous sandstone of considerable thickness, or, if a fine-grained rock, 
one that would have extensive fissures, and thus, in either case, rendered capable 
of acting as a reservoir for the gas, must underlie the surface at a depth of 

several hundred feet (500 to 2,500 feet) ; (c) Probably very few or none of the 
grand arches along mountain ranges will be found holding gas in large quantity, 
since in such cases the disturbance of the stratification has been so profound that 
all the natural gas generated in the past would long ago have escaped into the 
air through fissures that traverse all the beds. Another limitation might possibly 
be added, which would confine the area where great gas flows may be obtained 
to those underlaid by a considerable thickness of bituminous shale. 

Very fair gas wells may also be obtained for a considerable distance down 
the slope from the crest of the anticlinals, provided the dip be sufficiently 
rapid, and especially if it be irregular, or interrupted with slight crumples. 
And even in regions where there are no well-marked anticlinals, if the dip be 
somewhat rapid and irregular, rather large gas wells may occasionally be found, 
if all other conditions are favorable. 


Ashburner (1885), of the Second Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 
replied promptly to White’s announcement. While conceding that a 
relation existed between the position of anticlinal axes and the loca- 
tion of gas fields, he regarded the problem as more complex and cited 
other factors which he considered to be controlling, as follows: 


Although it is a fact that many of our largest Pennsylvania gas wells are 
located near anticlinal axes, yet the position in which gas may be found, and 
the amount to be obtained, depend upon (@) the porosity and homogeneousness 
of the sandstone which serves as a reservoir to hold the gas; (b) the extent to 
which the strata above or below the gas-sand are cracked; (c) the dip of the 
gas-sand and the position of the anticlines and synclines; (d) the relative pro- 
portions of water, oil, and gas contained in the sand; and (e) the pressure under 
which the gas exists before being tapped by wells. 


Lesley, in a paper published the following year (1886, pp. 654-655), 
strongly opposed White’s theory; the following quotation states his 
views: 

Quite recently the location of the anticlinal lines in the Pittsburgh region has 
become a sort of popular mania, produced by a theory. The whole community 


interested in the subject of natural gas has been carried away by a theory 
* %* * the anticlinal theory of gas. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 167 


Stated in a few words, it is a theory that oil, being lighter than water, must 
rise to higher levels. If the application of this theory was confined to bottles 
no one would dispute it; the water in a bottle must collect at the bottom, the 
oil in the middle and the gas on top. But the earth is not a bottle. It has no 
great caverns in it. More than that, the arrangement takes place naturally 
under the pressure of only one atmosphere; while any arrangement of water, 
gas, and oil, made at depths of a thousand or 2,000 feet, must be made under 
pressures of from 100 to 400 pounds to the square inch. * * * It therefore 
seems to me irrational to assign any importance whatever to the extremely 
gentle anticlines of the gas-oil region. 

To this I add the important consideration that the movements of oil and 
water have been shown by actual practice to be governed entirely by the char- 
acter of the rock in which they take place, and that they are effectually stopped 
at fixed geographical lines where porous rock changes into sandstones and 
sandstones into shales. And these changes of character in the rock itself have 
no fixed relation whatever to the anticlinal waves, which, on the contrary, cross 
them transversely or diagonally. 

White, in replies to these criticisms (1885b; 1886), again emphasized 
his position that not all anticlines would be gas-bearing, especially 
such subordinate anticlinal folds as occurred within the synclines. He 
pointed to the success which had attended development along eight 
anticlines in the vicinity of Pittsburgh and the failures which had 
resulted from drilling in the intervening synclines. Thus the im- 
portance of structure as a factor in the accumulation of oil and gas 
came to be recognized by the geological profession and by practical 
operators. 

With the extension of oil and gas production to areas other than 
western Pennsylvania, it was soon found by the geologists working 
in them that modifications of White’s theory were required to explain 
all the structural problems that arose. Minshall, by careful surveys 
along the White Oak anticline in West Virginia, had shown that the 
axis itself was undulating, with pronounced domes or summits at 
some points and sags or depressions at others, and that the commercial 
gas accumulations were confined to the domes. In Ohio, Orton (1888, 
pp. 93-95) found that anticlinals were of infrequent occurrence but 
that oil and gas accumulation was controlled by another type of 
structural deformation, which he termed “arrested anticlinals,” or 
terraces. 

PRESSURE OF GAS 


One other major problem in connection with the occurrence of oil 
and gas greatly concerned the petroleum geologists of a half century 
ago—to find a satisfactory explanation for the pressure exerted by 
the gas upon the reservoir within which it was contained. Closed-in 
pressures ranging up to 1,000 pounds per square inch had been ob- 
served, and the enormous expulsive force of the gas, frequently caus- 
ing the drilling tools to be violently thrown from wells, was well 


168 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


known to operators. One explanation was that the gas formed in 
the earth much as steam is formed in a boiler and that the pressure 
resulted from the confinement of the gas. The theory most commonly 
held was that the weight of the overlying rocks caused the compres- 
sion of the gas, and the resulting pressure was accordingly called “rock 
pressure.” Lesley (1885) exhaustively studied this theory and dem- 
onstrated that the pressure of gas did not accord with the weight of 
the overburden. Orton seems to have been the first geologist clearly 
to understand the function of artesian pressure in relation to the 
pressure of oil and gas in the same stratum. He says (1888, p. 99): 

In the porous rock that contains them there is always, outside of the pro- 
ductive fields, a body of water, and in almost every instance, salt water. This 
water occupies the rock as it rises to day in its nearest outcrops. Communi- 
eating there with surface water or with rainfall, a head of pressure is given 
to the gas and oil that are held in the traps formed by the anticlinals or 
terraces into which the stratum has been thrown. The amount of pressure would 
thus depend on the height to which the water column is raised, in case con- 
tinuous porosity of the stratum can be assumed. 

Later Orton (1890) published a paper on the origin of the rock 
pressure of the Trenton limestone which laid the foundation for all 
later studies in dynamic geology as related to oil and gas. 


SUMMARY 


The preceding review of the status of petroleum geology in 1890, 
though brief, may, nevertheless, demonstrate that this division of the 
science had been placed on a sound foundation by the pioneer work 
of the men whose writings have been cited. The difficulties which they 
encountered and the differences of opinion which developed among 
them were in large measure the result of an endeavor to oversimplify 
their science. 

The tracing in detail of the evolution of these various ideas and 
theories and of their development into those which make up the present 
content of petroleum geology would unduly extend this paper. The 
writer accordingly passes to a review of its present status without 
attempting to follow closely all the changes in thought during the 
intervening period. 


GENESIS OF PETROLEUM 


GENERAL PROBLEM 


Starting with an accumulation of factual information concerning 
the nature and occurrence of petroleum, and following the scientific 
method of thought, petroleum geologists have sought to discover the 
sources from which it has come and the manner in which it has origi- 
nated. Most of them have held the opinion that oil and gas have been 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 169 


derived from organic matter deposited in sedimentary rocks. Some 
chemists and, more rarely, geologists have sought to explain the origin 
of these hydrocarbons as due to inorganic processes. Through the 
years this smaller group has diminished in numbers, and at the present 
time the organic origin of petroleum is “generally accepted” (Snider, 
1934, p.51). But agreement on the general principle has proven much 
simpler than the collection of pertinent and adequate supporting evi- 
dence. Like the broader biologic principle of evolution, precise knowl- 
edge of its mechanism is attained only by many years of intensive 
investigation. 

The general problem of the conversion of the organic material de- 
posited in sedimentary rocks into oil and gas may be divided into more 
specialized fields of investigation, such as: 

1. The character of the organic material which ultimately becomes petroleum. 

2. The characteristics which give to a sedimentary deposit the capacity to pro- 
duce petroleum. 

3, The steps of chemical change whereby the organic matter of animals and 
plants has been converted into the various hydrocarbons of which petroleum is 
composed. a 

4. The nature of the forces which have been instrumental in, or have con- 
tributed to, the transformation of organic matter into petroleum. 

5. The manner in which widely disseminated and minute quantities of such 
derivatives have been aggregated into appreciable quantities of fluid. 

In attacking these problems most geologists and chemists have con- 
sidered that the doctrine of uniformity of Lyell (1842, pp. 323-327), 
which assumes that the geologic processes and conditions of the present 
are essentially the same as those of the past, was applicable to the 
formation of petroleum. This is questioned by Woolnough (1937, p. 
1106) who considers that petroleum may have been formed under “con- 
ditions of accumulation not now exhibited, on a major scale, in any part 
of the world.” Any progress in the solution of problems of origin 
must, however, rest upon detailed examination of present processes on 
the assumption that, at least in kind if not in degree, they were opera- 
tive in past ages. 


NATURE OF ORGANIO MATERIAL 


As to the kind of organic matter that is requisite to the production 
of petroleum, there is much divergence of view. Trask (1938, p. 384) 
considers that petroleum is a very special substance and that only 
certain types of organic material can be changed into petroleum, while 
Snider (1934, p. 62) holds the opinion that almost any kind of organic 
matter buried in sediments may, under proper conditions, be changed 
to petroleum and natural gas. These are wide extremes of thought 
which have been developed through quite different lines of approach. 

Trask (1932), in an intensive study of the organic constituents of 
recent sediments, found that oils and fats form a very small part of the 


170 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


organic matter present; that cellulose compounds derived from higher 
plants are also present in small quantities; and that nitrogenous com- 
pounds and complex compounds of lignin and humus form the bulk 
of the organic matter. He therefore reasons that petroleum must come 
from these complex organic compounds rather than from the very small 
quantities of oils, fats, and cellulose. However, no evidence is pre- 
sented by him which suggests that, to the extent that they were pres- 
ent, these other substances may not also have become constituents of 
petroleum. 

Whereas Trask’s work has been primarily concerned with quantita- 
tive determinations of the presence in sediments of particular types of 
organic matter, other investigators have been attempting, through the 
analysis of individual oils and through the isolation of particular or- 
ganic constituents, to develop suggestive relations with living organic 
matter. The presence in crude oils of a wide variety of microscopic 
objects, such as diatoms, Foraminifera, insect scales, and petrified 
wood, may be significant (Sanders, 1937). The identification in crpde 
petroleum of chlorophyll porphyrins suggests a direct relation with 
higher forms of vegetable life (Triebs, 1935). Hlauschek (1936) con- 
siders that plants, producing lignin, form the principal source of cyclic 
hydrocarbons and that the life of the sea has been the source of the 
straight-chain type of hydrocarbons. Brooks (1936) regards fatty oils 
as the principal source materials, with other types of organic sub- 
stances such as cellulose, starches, sugars, proteins, lignins, and waxes 
as additional sources. He points to the presence of heptane in pine 
trees and to the close relation between the terpenes and certain petro- 
leum hydrocarbons. Berl (1938) also regards carbohydrates and 
derivatives thereof as the chief parent material of crude petroleum. 

In the evolution of life from the earliest times to the present the 
dominant types of plants and animals have been different at various 
periods. It is probable, therefore, that the chemical characteristics of 
the remains of such life have also varied. Modern plants, for example, 
doubtless contain more lignin than Paleozoic plants. 

Most geologists will probably accept the thesis that petroleum has 
been formed at all times in the earth’s past by the transformation of 
the then existing organic matter and that the distinguishing character- 
istics of the petroleum found in deposits of different ages are related 
to the nature of the particular organic matter present in the area where 
the petroleum was formed at the time of its origin. 


SOURCE BEDS 


The concept that certain sedimentary deposits had greater capacity 
than others to originate petroleum is as old as petroleum geology itself. 
Dana (1871) taught that shales and argillaceous sandstones were the 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—-HEROY 171 


most common original source and that the oil found in arenaceous sand- 
stones was supposed to have been derived from the shales above or 
below. Black shales were thought to be rich in oil, probably because 
“coal oil” had been distilled from them. A relationship was thus early 
assumed to exist between the amount of organic matter present in sedi- 
ments and their capacity to originate petroleum. The term “source 
beds” gradually came into use to distinguish those rocks from whose 
organic matter petroleum has originated. As the science advanced, 
however, it became apparent that such generalizations were not com- 
pletely true, and about 20 years ago the need for experimental investi- 
gation of source beds began to be recognized. This took definite form 
in 1926 when the American Petroleum Institute sponsored a research 
program which is still continuing. 

Investigation of so complex a subject was initially faced with in- 
herent difficulties. The assumption that the source beds were strati- 
graphically closely associated with the reservoir beds depends for its 
validity on the premise that oil has accumulated near the zone and 
area of origin and has not migrated horizontally or vertically for long 
distances, a premise on which petroleum geologists are by no means 
in agreement. If organic matter in the form of petroleum has origi- 
nated in particular strata, then the movement of the petroleum out 
of these strata will leave them poorer in organic matter than they 
were originally; hence present organic content may not be conclusive 
as to whether or not a particular bed has acted as a source of petroleum. 
On the other hand, if certain strata were originally sufficiently rich in 
organic matter to originate petroleum they may still, even after giving 
up some of their organic content, be richer in organic matter than other 
sedimentary deposits. If the geologic forces to which an area has 
been subjected subsequent to the deposition of the source beds are an 
important factor in the genesis of petroleum, then the amount and 
character of the organic matter originally present in the sediments 
may not be the major factor; the dynamic history may be controlling. 
These and other questions complicate the problem of recognizing source 
beds. Work on details of the problem has led to some specific con- 
clusions, and in the following paragraph the writer has attempted to 
summarize present prevailing opinion on this subject. 

Recent marine sediments contain as high as 7 percent organic matter 
with the average around 2.5 percent. Some older rocks, such as Mon- 
terey shale, may have had a higher organic content than recent sedi- 
ments at the time of deposition. All ancient sediments have probably 
lost some of their original organic content, and the loss through aging 
may be as much as 40 percent. The proportion of the original organic 
content that may have been converted into petroleum is unknown but 
has been estimated at from 5 to 10 percent. In recent sediments the 


172. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


organic matter consists of about 60 percent carbon, 7 percent nitrogen, 
and the remainder chiefly hydrogen. In ancient sediments the pro- 
portion of nitrogen increases, indicating that there has been loss of 
hydrogen and carbon through geologic change (Trask, 1932, p. 222). 
Dark sediments generally have a higher organic content than lighter 
ones, and the blackness of many marine shales is chiefly due to con- 
tained organic matter (Twenhofel, 1939, p.1181). Hence, dark marine 
shales are generally regarded as good source beds and, when near oil 
reservoirs, are considered as the most probable source of the petroleum 
(Snider, 1934, p. 62). 

The organic matter in recent sediments consists of a highly complex 
group of substances (Trask, 1932, p. 198). Oils and fats constitute 
only 1 percent; waxes, resins, alkaloids, and alcohols comprise about 
5 percent; carbohydrates form less than 1 percent; sugars, starches, 
and other water-soluble substances, chiefly organic acids, form 3 
percent. Nitrogenous compounds form the largest group, comprising 
about 40 percent, about half being proteins and the remainder more 
resistant nitrogenous compounds. Finally, about 30 percent of the 
organic matter consists of lignins and humic complexes. It is from 
such source materials that hydrocarbons must have been derived. 

The organic matter of recent sediments is nearly all present in solid 
form. The proportion soluble in hot water comprises only about 
3 percent, and all the material extracted from such sediments by solu- 
tion in carbon tetrachloride appears to be solid in nature (Trask, 
1932, p. 173). 


CONVERSION OF ORGANIC MATTER TO PETROLEUM 


The problem of when, where, and how the organic content of sedi- 
ments was converted into petroleum is a refinement to which the geolo- 
gist of half a century ago had not advanced and which received very 
little attention until 20 years ago. From the time that the problem 
assumed definite form, geologists have been primarily concerned 
with the time and place of conversion, while the manner in which the 
change occurred has been left largely to the chemists and biologists. 

The uppermost layers of newly deposited sediments have a dense 
bacterial population, and such microorganisms are probably an im- 
portant factor in the generation of hydrocarbons. Bacteria func- 
tion to remove nitrogen and oxygen from the organic matter con- 
tained in the sediments, which is thus changed in composition so as 
more nearly to resemble petroleum (Hammar, 1934). This trans- 
formation probably occurs very early in the history of the sediments, 
and there is little if any evidence to support the view that bacterial 
action continues after sediments have been deeply buried and subjected 
to dynamic action (David White, 1985). 


PRTROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY Ws 


Up to quite recently such evidence as was available to geologists 
tended to show that petroleum was formed at the time of deposition 
and buried with the sediments (McCoy, 1926, p. 1022). However, 
extensive chemical examination of recent marine sediments indi- 
cates that petroleum is not present in them and consequently is not 
formed at the time of deposition or shortly thereafter (Trask and 
Wu, 1930). Recent sediments, therefore, appear to have reached 
a stage in their history at which the bacterial action has largely run 
its course but at which petroleum has not yet been formed. The 
organic matter, the “mother substance” of petroleum, as it is some- 
times called, presumably is present in such sediments in solid form, 
analogous to the solid bituminous material, called “kerogen,” found 
in oil shales (McCoy and Keyte, 1934, p. 271). Berl (1938, p. 2) 
considers that, after bacterial action has ceased, carbohydrates, 
humic acids, and lignin are converted into intermediate substances 
which he calls “protoproducts” and which he considers the parent ma- 
terials for petroleum. Other chemists, notably Hackford (1932), 
have also sought to trace the transformation of vegetable matter into 
petroleum. Most chemists consider that only moderate temperatures, 
such as are within the bounds of geologic probability, are required to 
effect such changes. Time, of which the geologist sees an abundant 
supply, is also thought to be an important factor in the conversion. 

Much work remains to be done before the various steps in the 
conversion of organic matter into petroleum can be accurately traced. 
At some stage in the process the solid organic matter laid down with 
the sediments is converted into fluids, and it is only then that move- 
ment from source bed to reservoir becomes possible. 

As a result of studies of crude oils in the Gulf Coast, Barton (1934) 
concluded that petroleum, when first formed, is heavy and viscous and 
has, as the result of the operation of heat, pressure, and perhaps other 
forces, evolved into progressively lighter oils. He has, however, also 
observed that deeper oils have lower specific gravity than those nearer 
the surface. To what extent this relationship may be explained by 
loss of volatile constituents through escape to the surface is unknown, 
but the inference of recent intensive geochemical studies is that there 
is a definite upward movement of hydrocarbons from the reservoirs 
to the surface, even though the cover rocks may appear highly im- 
pervious to such migration. 


GEOLOGIC FORCES OPERATING TO PRODUCE PETROLEUM 


The chemical reactions required to produce petroleum from the 
“mother substance” have presumably not occurred spontaneously but 
have been brought about by competent physical forces, such as heat, 
pressure, and movement. All these forces are operative in deeply 


174 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


buried sediments, and geologists, contrasting conditions in such sedi- 
ments with those occurring at the surface, have naturally sought in 
some way to relate the origin of petroleum to them. 

As a section of sedimentary rocks is deposited, the weight of the 
overburden progressively increases, and the deeper beds become 
heavily loaded.. The pressure thus created causes compaction of 
the sediments, which become more dense with increase in depth 
(Athy, 1930a). Compaction is accompanied by closer spacing of the 
grains and by the gradual displacement from the sediment of most 
of the interstitial water. The friction resulting from movement of 
the grains may produce some heat (Pratt, 1934, p. 242), and chemical 
reactions, such as the oxidation of pyrite, may be another source, 
but it is probable that the internal heat of the earth is the chief 
cause of increase in temperature with depth. Whatever the cause, 
recent drilling in sedimentary basins to depths approaching 3 miles 
has revealed the existence of temperatures of nearly 300° F. Such 
temperatures are greater than those which chemists have usually 
considered would be available for geochemical reactions leading to 
the formation of petroleum. The opinion (McCoy and Keyte, 1934, 
p. 269) that most of the known oil fields were formed at temperatures 
lower than 140° F. may, therefore, require revision. Even tempera- 
tures of around 300° F. are, however, lower than those usually 
considered to be within the “cracking range,” and the reactions by 
which petroleum has been formed may still, from the chemist’s 
standpoint, be considered low-temperature changes. The reactions 
by which organic matter is converted to petroleum are essentially 
endothermic, and the energy present in the form of heat in the sedi- 
ments where petroleum is being formed accordingly facilitates them. 

Pressure may have had an important effect in the formation of 
petroleum by favoring polymerization (Brooks, 1938, p. 51). Hy- 
drogenation and other types of chemical transformation of hydro- 
carbons are also facilitated by pressure (Pratt, 1934, p. 241). In 
addition to the weight of the overburden, pressure in sediments may 
be due to hydrostatic head, the presence of petroleum gases in porous 
reservoirs, and possibly other factors such as cementation and 
chemical metamorphism. As water-free sedimentary rocks have an 
average specific gravity above 2.5, the weight of the overburden 
might be expected to result in pressures at depths greatly in excess 
of the weight of a column of water of equivalent height. Measure- 
ments indicate, however, that the hydrostatic pressures existing in 
underground reservoirs normally correspond to the weight of such 
a column of water (Versluys, 19382) rather than to the weight of 
the overlying sediments. This has been found true in wells drilled to 
depths of over 13,000 feet in which the reservoir pressures exceed 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY iio 


6,000 pounds per square inch. When pressures of that magnitude 
occur in combination with temperatures of 300° F., their potency 
to effect chemical changes must be great. 

Recent unconsolidated sediments contain large amounts of water. 
As compaction progresses, fluids in the strata which are being com- 
pressed are forced from them. While this movement may be of 
great importance in connection with the migration of petroleum 
(Athy, 1930b), it may also be a significant factor in the chemi- 
cal reactions which produce petroleum by facilitating molecular 
rearrangement. 

AGGREGATION 


The work of Trask and others has indicated that there is great varia- 
tion in richness of organic content between types of sediments and be- 
tween beds in the same geologic section. Vertical variation in organic 
content is generally greater than horizontal variation. But, after full 
allowance has been made for such differences, the fact remains that 
organic matter is quite universally distributed throughout sediments of 
marine origin. The sediments which are usually richest in organic 
matter are fine-textured shales, and the organic matter is minutely 
disseminated through them. The pore spaces of such sediments are of 
capillary dimensions, and older sediments of this character are highly 
impervious to the movement of fluids. When first deposited, such sedi- 
ments were clays and silts with large volumes of interstitial water 
(Trask, 1932, p. 77; Twenhofel, 1932, p. 258). 

It is in such an environment that the solid organic matter laid down 
with the sediments has been transformed into other compounds which 
are capable of being transported by water. If the organic matter were 
water-soluble its movement through capillary spaces would occur more 
readily than if it were in the form of minute globules of hydrocarbons 
insoluble in water. It is conceivable that the solid organic matter 
which is later to become petroleum has at first been converted into 
water-soluble or water-miscible intermediate compounds and that it 
was in some such state when it first left the place of original deposition. 
In that case the further chemical change of such intermediate com- 
pounds to petroleum might occur after the organic matter had been 
removed from the point of original deposition and had, in the course 
of its movement, come into contact with solutions or forces which had 
caused further reactions to produce the hydrocarbons which collec- 
tively form petroleum and natural gas. No experimental work with 
which the writer is conversant clarifies this problem. 

Whatever the precise process of chemical change may have been, it 
seems necessary to postulate that somewhere in the very early history 
of petroleum there must have been an aggregation of finely divided 


176 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


material into appreciable quantities of hydrocarbons which would be 
present in the water-saturated sediments either as a solute or in the 
form of globules physically distinct from the water. While the mecha- 
nism of this process is unknown, it appears to be an essential link in 
the chain of the origin of petroleum. 

The available evidence indicates that this aggregation occurs within 
the source rock. Older sediments of marine origin, both dense and 
porous, are impregnated with small quantities of petroleum, in con- 
trast with recent sediments in which it is rare or absent. This was 
well known to Orton (1888, p. 83) who estimated the quantity of 
petroleum present in this diffused condition in some of the rocks 
of Ohio. Surprisingly little detailed investigation of the quantity 
and distribution of petroleum in older rocks has been carried on. 
Trask has determined the organic content of many samples of older 
rocks from wells, but the analyses do not disclose the amount of organic 
matter present in the form of petroleum. Stout (1936, p. 799) studied 
various Ohio limestones and shales and found that the content of hydro- 
carbons was about 0.5 percent. Most geologists will probably be in 
accord with the statement of Illing (1938b, p. 209) that 

There can be no doubt that a still larger amount of oil and gas occurs as a more 
widespread but less concentrated impregnation of the denser rocks, the clays, 
marls and limestones surrounding the reservoir rocks. 

In concluding this discussion of the genesis of petroleum, the state- 
ment seems justified that the conversion of the complex organic sub- 
stances deposited with the sediments into the petroleum found in older 
rocks takes place within the source bed and results from the various 
chemical and physical forces to which the organic matter has therein 
been subjected. 


MIGRATION OF PETROLEUM 
GENERAL STATEMENT 


The accumulation of petroleum in immense concentrations in oil 
pools is in contrast with its wide diffusion through the source beds in 
which it had its origin. The movement of petroleum from source to 
reservoir has resulted from the operation of physical forces, and 
geologists are vitally concerned with the character of these forces and 
the extent of their effectiveness. This movement is collectively called 
migration, but the use of such an inclusive term is deceptive, for the 
process is doubtless highly complex. In its simplest form it may 
be resolved into a consideration of (1) movement of oil from source 
bed into carrier bed; and (2) movement through the carrier bed to 
the reservoir. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—-HEROY 177 


MIGRATION FROM SOURCE BED TO CARRIER BED 


The compaction of sediments by the increasing load of younger beds 
deposited in succession is accompanied by the loss of a large part of the 
interstitial water they originally contained (Athy, 1930). The con- 
nate water remaining in the sediments adheres closely to the individual 
grains and fills the intervening voids. Because of the presence of this 
film of closely adhering water, which is present even in well-saturated 
oil reservoirs, it is probable that petroleum normally does not wet the 
grains but remains in the interstitial passages in the form of minute 
globules (Schilthuis, 1937, p. 200). The movement of the interstitial 
water is regarded as the principal cause of the migration of oil from 
the source beds. The outward movement of water from such sedi- 
ments will be in the direction of least resistance, from the clays and 
marls into the more permeable strata. If at the time this outward 
movement is in progress petroleum has already formed in the sedi- 
ments, it may be expected to move with the expressed water into the 
more porous beds which are competent to act as carriers (Illing, 1933). 

With the passage of time and the completion of the cycle of deposi- 
tion the sediments gradually become lithified and a condition will ulti- 
mately be reached in which the compaction of the deeper beds will cease. 
The more competent members of the series will acquire strength to sus- 
tain the load of the overlying sediments, and the fluids which they 
contain will reach a state of equilibrium. 

Capillarity has also been thought competent to cause the movement 
of petroleum from the source bed to the carrier bed. McCoy (1926, p. 
1027) concluded, on the basis of experimental evidence, that there is 
an interchange of fluids between the source bed and the carrier bed, 
the oil in the source bed being expelled into the more porous bed and 
replaced by an equal amount of water. This interchange was thought 
to occur in the capillary spaces of the source rock and to be caused 
by the superior surface tension of the water ; the water, having a greater 
adhesive tension for the wall of the capillary than does the oil, and 
its adhesive tension for the wall of the capillary being greater than the 
surface tension of the oil, the oil column in the capillary would be 
broken, and minute globules of oil would be split off and moved through 
the capillary in the direction of the more permeable bed. 

Other forces which have been considered as contributing to the move- 
ment of oil from denser to more porous rocks are artesian circulation 
and diastrophic movements in the sedimentary basin. The effective- 
ness of the first-mentioned is questionable, for artesian flow is likely 
to take place through the most porous beds and is unlikely to be effec- 
tive in the denser sediments. Diastrophism may have been effective 
in creating compressive forces which may, in turn, have acted on the 


178 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


denser strata and caused fluid movements in the capillary spaces, but 
there is little in the way of direct evidence to support this thesis. Dias- 
trophic movements, by producing fractures and faults, have opened 
new channels for the vertical movement of fluids from one porous bed 
to another or have brought into contact reservoir beds not previously 
communicating. 


MIGRATION THROUGH THE CARRIER BED 


The term “carrier bed” was introduced by Rich (1931) to designate 
porous beds, such as coarse sands or cavernous limestones, which were 
favorable in texture to the movement of oil. While the term was in- 
tended especially to describe beds that would facilitate long-distance 
migration, it is a convenient designation for any porous stratum 
through which petroleum may have moved, and it is used here in that 
broader sense. 

It has been postulated that, during the compaction of a series of 
sedimentary rocks, water carrying globules of petroleum has moved 
from the source bed into the more porous adjoining carrier beds. 
Firstly, if a bed were sufficiently extensive to have a surface outcrop 
along the margin of the basin, the excess water would have an oppor- 
tunity to follow it toward the outcrop and, perhaps, there to make its 
escape. But the same outcrop would also permit the entry into the 
carrier bed of meteoric waters and, depending upon the altitude of 
the outcrop and other conditions, the meteoric waters might be able 
to resist the outward movement of the connate waters to such an extent 
that their escape through the carrier bed might be prevented. In that 
case, the line of least resistance to the movement of the excess water 
might be across the bedding, through the less pervious rocks forming 
its cover. Secondly, if the carrier bed does not have a surface out- 
crop, the excess waters deposited with the sediments will ordinarily 
have only one avenue of ultimate escape—across the bedding planes. 
It seems probable that most of the excess interstitial water must have 
passed upward through the section, for, at the time when the basin 
was in formation and compaction was in process, the basin would 
usually not have been sufficiently deformed and eroded to provide the 
carrier beds with surface outcrops. 

Once having entered the carrier bed, the particles of petroleum 
which had passed through the capillary pores of the source rock would 
tend to coalesce into larger globules in the wider interstitial spaces of 
the carrier bed. These larger globules would be capable of lateral 
movement through the carrier bed but would not be able to enter the 
smaller capillary spaces of an overlying clay or shale. If the water 
in the carrier bed were forced upward as a result of compaction, the 
globules of oil would be left behind and would be held at the interface. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 179 


This concept has been developed by Illing (1933) who called the 
process “filtration.” It was also well described by Versluys (1982) 
who remarked that “fine grained strata act as screens when water, 
charged with small globules of oil or minute bubbles of gas, is forced 
through them.” 

By some such mechanism petroleum has moved from the source beds 
into the more porous beds throughout the entire extent of their con- 
tact. Information gained over many years by drilling into porous 
beds has shown that it is exceptional that more than a small part of the 
entire area of a porous bed is saturated with oil and gas; by far the 
larger part contains water. It seems evident that in some manner 
the petroleum must have been collected from the wide areas through- 
out which it entered the porous beds and concentrated in the relatively 
much smaller areas which it is now found to occupy.” The movement 
by which this has been accomplished is essentially a lateral movement, 
one which continues until the petroleum reaches a stratigraphic or 
structural trap. 

An explanation of this movement which is satisfactory to the 
geologist and which will withstand successfully the criticism of the 
physicist has been difficult to attain. The earlier geologists had a 
simple and, to them, complete explanation. Oil and gas, being lighter 
than water, floated above it and filled the highest portion of the porous 
rock. Abundant evidence accumulated which was considered to sup- 
port the principle of flotation, and it became quite generally accepted, 
along with the corollary that, if the dip of the porous beds were sufli- 
cient to overcome friction, the particles of oil and gas would gradually 
move up the slope to the pool, the gas with its lower specific gravity 
occupying the higher places (Griswold and Munn, 1907, p. 24). 

Munn (1909) was, perhaps, the first to question the adequacy of 
flotation or buoyancy to account for the accumulation of oil pools, 
considering that the enormous pressures developed in oil and gas wells 
were not satisfactorily explained by it. Following him, other in- 
vestigators down to the present have thought that flotation alone 
could not produce migration. Lling (19388b) says: 

It is therefore not at all certain from first principles that gas, oil, and water will 
separate out by flotation in the pores of the rock, and it is clear that the separation 


will depend upon certain limiting conditions, the relative importance of surface 
tension and buoyancy. 


7 Some geologists, on the contrary, consider that the accumulation of oil takes place essen- 
tially in situ (McCoy and Keyte, 1934) and is due to the juxtaposition of rich source bed 
and reservoir. Clark (1934) also favors this view, explaining the absence of oil in some 
apparently favorable traps by the absence of rich source bedg in their immediate vicinity. 
It would appear to the writer coincidental that zones of unusually rich source material 
should have been formed in the source rocks in the same localities that later become the 
loci where traps were formed by structural deformation. The writer thinks that the organic 
matter has been more uniformly distributed and that wider areas have been drawn upon to 
fill the traps. 


8 


180 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


In contrast with the principle of flotation, which requires no lateral 
movement of the fluids in the reservoir but only displacement of indi- 
vidual particles, other theories which are based on the fundamental 
principle that the fluids in the porous bed are in motion have been 
developed to account for oil migration. Munn (1909) announced the 
“hydraulic theory” that moving water under either hydraulic or capil- 
lary pressure has been the direct agent of accumulation of oil and gas 
pools.” It was his view that hydraulic pressure was the result both of 
compaction and of invasion by water from surface sources. The causes 
of hydraulic movement were more definitely stated by Rich (1931) to. 
be compaction, generation of gas by regional metamorphism, and 
artesian pressure. 

Cheney (1940, p. 116) has recently suggested a modification of earlier 
views concerning hydraulic movement. He visualizes 
* * * the main controlling movement of fluids (except in reservoirs having 
intake greatly elevated above sea level) as occurring updip instead of downdip; 
the time of movement being largely restricted to the early periods when porosity 
was being reduced actively by sedinfentary loading or compressive diastrophic 
forces instead of later when erosion and unloading progressively reduce pres- 
sures; and the source of the migrating water being not meteoric but from the 
compacting sediments of the basin or geosynclinal areas. ° 

A combination of the principles of flotation and hydraulic movement 
seems best to explain the movement of oil and gas to areas of accumula- 
tion. If globules of oil are put in motion in currents of water which 
are passing through porous rocks, they will at every opportunity seek a 
higher position. Because of the difference in specific gravity a definite 
upward pressure is exerted on each oil globule and, if it is in a condition 
of flotation and can move freely, it will tend to move upward with ref- 
erence to the water by which it issurrounded. It will come to rest when 
it reaches a capillary opening too small to permit its passage, taking 
into account the pressure exerted against it by the moving water. 
Ultimately the decrease in the size of the capillary spaces due to 
compaction will retard and perhaps completely stop hydraulic move- 
ment in a sedimentary basin, bringing about at the same time a cessation 
of oil migration in the carrier bed. 

The fundamental cause of the movement of fluids through porous 
beds is differential pressure, and the amount and direction of pressure 
are determined by the geologic conditions in the area at the time the 
movement takes place. 


EFFECTIVENESS OF CARRIER BEDS 


The extent to which movement of oil from source rock to reservoir 
may occur is largely determined by the effectiveness of the carrier bed 
as a conductor. The capacity of a porous substance to transmit fluids 
is termed permeability. Some of the factors which influence the perme- 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 181 


ability of rocks are congenital; others are the result of subsequent 
geological processes. 

Congenital factors are lithology and areal extent. Sands are ini- 
tially more permeable than marls and clays; coarse sands more per- 
meable than finer ones. Certain fragmental or oolitic limestones, 
however, originally had permeability comparable to that of sands. 
Porous rocks that were deposited over limited areas in the form of 
lenses or that gradually became less porous laterally as a result of 
change in composition are obviously less effective as carriers than 
those which were laid down over wide areas. Even “blanket” sand- 
stones such as the St. Peter, Berea, Dakota, and Woodbine, which are 
regionally continuous, are, however, by no means uniform in per- 
meability and frequently contain “tight” areas. Limestones show an 
even greater variation, such as that which accompanies a change from 
reef to offshore facies. 

Factors which have reduced the permeability of rocks subsequent 
to deposition include compaction, lithification, cementation, and re- 
crystallization. The effect of compaction in reducing the size of pore 
spaces has already been mentioned. Changes in density, such as from 
sands to sandstones and from clays to shales, however they may have 
been accomplished, usually reduce the effectiveness of rocks to conduct 
fluids by forcing the individual grains into closer contact. The factors 
just mentioned are usually most effective soon after the sediments are 
deposited. Cementation, which may occur either during the early 
or the later history of the sediments, may change a rock which was 
originally a competent carrier to one which may be highly impervious, 
as illustrated by the change from sandstone to quartzite (Twenhofel, 
1932, p. 229). Recrystallization may in some cases increase porosity 
but it is quite as likely to decrease permeability by closing capillary 
passages. Dynamic metamorphism has an influence of the second 
order by bringing into play some of the factors which have been 
specified. 

Permeability has, on the other hand, been increased by other factors 
such as solution and fracturing. Solution has functioned chiefly in 
calcareous and dolomitic rocks. It has resulted from subaerial ex- 
posure and weathering and in many limestone fields has unquestion- 
ably increased the porosity of the reservoir (Adams, 1934). Such 
paleogeographic conditions would presumably be local rather than 
regional and may therefore have influenced migration of oil over 
limited areas. Solution has in many cases acted to increase the ini- 
tial porosity, and it then becomes difficult to determine how much 
of the permeability is primary and how much secondary. The impor- 
tance of fracturing in increasing permeability also varies greatly 
among different areas. Such highly permeable limestones as the 

566766—4418 


182 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Permian of the Yates and Hobbs pools have apparently not been 
affected by fracturing. In contrast, the movement of oil in the 
Panuco field in Mexico is largely due to fracturing and faulting 
(Muir, 1934), and Lees (1933) considers that the permeability of the 
Asmari limestone in the Tranian fields is primarily due to fault cracks. 
Limestones such as the Asmari and the El Abra have enormous per- 
meability over wide areas. 


DISTANCE OF LATERAL MIGRATION 


One of the most debated topics in petroleum geology is the extent 
to which petroleum has migrated from one area to another; some 
consider that such movement has been restricted to comparatively 
short distances (Clark, 1934; McCoy and Keyte, 1934), while others 
contend that it may have traveled for “tens or even hundreds of 
miles” (Rich, 1981). 

The basic factors which determine the distance of lateral migration of 
oil and gas are the extent, permeability, and continuity of the carrier 
beds. In the hypothetical case of a carrier bed of high and uniform 
permeability and of regional extent it is evident that, under conditions 
of differential pressure, fluids should be able to move through it for 
long distances. But conditions of sedimentation which even approach 
such uniformity are exceptional; lateral variation is the normal 
condition. 

The simplest case is that of a lenticular sand enclosed within shales 
and having an areal extent of a few square miles. In such a carrier 
bed the movement of fluids is not caused by artesian pressure but by 
forces of more limited scope; it occurs most readily while the sediments 
are in process of compaction and while the shales are sufficiently per- 
vious to permit substantial movement across bedding planes. During 
this interval the sand would have received from the source beds adja- 
cent to or near it its quota of oil and gas. It is difficult to see how, 
later, after compaction and lithification are essentially completed, 
much migration beyond the limits of the sand would normally occur. 
Any further movement of fluids in a carrier bed of such limited extent 
would result from the deformation of the sedimentary basin, produc- 
ing tilting, faulting, and folding. Cementation in sands and lime- 
stones would limit lateral migration by creating restrictions on 
movement comparable to lensing. 

On the other extreme are carriers such as the Woodbine and the Da- 
kota in which artesian conditions are known to occur over many thou- 
sands of square miles. Drilling, both for water and for oil, have dem- 
onstrated that through basins such as East Texas, the artesian pressure 
system is essentially continuous even though there may be local varia- 
tions in permeability. It is again difficult to explain how such an 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 183 


immense accumulation of petroleum as is present in the East Texas 
field has been derived from a highly restricted and local source; it is 
more reasonable to consider that the Woodbine has been an effective 
carrier bed across large areas. 

Between such extremes the geologist meets an almost complete grada- 
tion. The writer considers that each field presents a special problem 
in migration and that a simple generalization which will explain all 
cases is not to be expected or even sought. 


ACCUMULATION OF PETROLEUM 


METHOD OF ACCUMULATION 


The fundamental force which determines in what part of a carrier 
bed accumulation of oil and gas will take place is gravity. Having 
ordinarily a lower specific gravity than water, they have, when 
present in the same reservoir, greater buoyancy, and gravitational 
separation results. The mechanism of accumulation has been well 
stated by Rich (1923) : 

Accumulation results from the selective segregation of oil and gas, which, on 
account of their buoyancy, always tend to work their way upward toward the 
roof of the reservoir as they are carried along by the water, and so are caught in 
anticlinal or similar structural [and stratigraphic] traps, or in places where 
differences of porosity cause a “screening” section which permits the passage 
of water, but holds back oil and gas. 


PLACE OF ACCUMULATION 


General statement.—A trap is a geologic feature causing the ac- 
cumulation of fluids in porous rocks; in petroleum geology the use 
of the term is restricted to an accumulation of oil and gas—the 
“structure” of the practical oil man. Various classifications which 
make it possible to visualize more readily the wide range of circum- 
stances under which such accumulation has occurred have been 
proposed by geologists (Clapp, 1929; Wilson, 1934). The porous 
zone in which the oil and associated fluids have accumulated within 
the trap is called the reservoir. Accumulation occurs, in principle, 
because the upward and lateral movement of the oil and gas is 
arrested by the presence of a barrier—in other words, a trap or 
closure. 

Traps are formed by conditions which were established at the time 
the sediments were deposited, by the diagenesis and lithification to 
which the sediments have later been subjected, and by deformation. 
Most of those in the first two groups (depositional and diagenetic), 
described in the following paragraphs, may also be classified as 
stratigraphic traps, while those in the third (deformational) are 
structural traps (Levorsen, 1936, p. 524). While some traps are of 


184 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


simple types, most of them are formed by a combination of factors. 
Oil fields may be due to only a single trap, but more frequently 
several traps are present and these may be of more than one type. In 
the following summary the more important types of each group, and 
some of the oil fields which are illustrative of each, are mentioned. 

Depositional traps.—Traps which are the result of conditions estab- 
lished when the sediments were deposited are of two principal types: 
those in which the reservoir bed wedges out laterally between less 
permeable strata or in which the character of the reservoir bed 
changes lithologically; and those in which the porous bed has been 
truncated and the beveled edge has been overlapped by a less 
permeable bed. 

In order for the wedge to be an effective trap it must point up-dip, 
and this inclination may be either initial dip or the result of sub- 
sequent tilting. Important oil fields of this type are Burbank (Sands, 
1927) and Glenn (Wilson, 1927), Oklahoma, and the East Coalinga 
field, California (Atwill, 1940). These fields occur on the margin of 
sands which have large regional extent. A similar type of accumula- 
tion occurs in lenticular and “shoestring” sands where the areal 
extent of the trap may be quite small, as in the fields of eastern 
Kansas and western Pennsylvania (Rich, 1938). 

The truncation of a porous bed and the unconformable deposition 
across its edge of a cover rock forms an excellent trap. An out- 
standing example is the East Texas field (Minor and Hanna, 1933), 
in which the oil has accumulated in the truncated edge of the Wood- 
bine sand. The sands of the Simpson group in the Oklahoma City 
field are overlapped by Pennsylvania strata to form traps of this 
character (McGee and Clawson, 1932). 

Diagenetie traps.—In this group are included those traps which 
have resulted from changes in the petrology of the reservoir rocks 
subsequent to their deposition—that is, from diagenesis. Accumu- 
lation in sandstones may be controlled by cementation, as in some 
of the Venango sand fields of Pennsylvania (Torrey, 1934, p. 472) 
and the Clinton sand fields of Ohio (Billingsley, 1934, p. 505). 
More frequently, however, traps of this group are formed by the 
solution and recrystallization of limestones (Howard, 1928; Adams, 
1934). Long after they were deposited diastrophic movements have 
frequently exposed limestones to weathering. Subaerial exposure 
and solution by ground water have then produced secondary porosity 
in the limestone, and, when the weathered surface was covered by 
later sediments, a trap suitable for oil accumulation has resulted. 
The formation of dolomite by the recrystallization of calcite and 
aragonite is probably responsible for increasing the porosity of lime- 
stones, and this alteration seems frequently to be a part of the paleo- 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 185 


weathering just mentioned. Certainly some of the most prolific lime- 
stone reservoirs are in-dolomites which seem to be of secondary origin. 

In the Lima-Indiana field oil has accumulated in the upper zone of 
the Trenton limestone, the porosity of which has probably resulted 
from dolomitization (Carman and Stout, 1934). In the fields of 
Michigan, where the Dundee formation is the most important reser- 
voir rock, dolomitization is the principal cause of porosity (Hake, 
1938). Inthe Oklahoma City field the Arbuckle limestone, the lowest 
producing horizon, of lower Ordovician age, has been partly eroded, 
and the porosity of the reservoir has evidently resulted from weather- 
ing (McGee and Clawson, 1932). 

Deformational traps—Tilting, folding, faulting, and intrusion 
have for the most part, resulted from movement which has occurred 
in sedimentary deposits since their deposition, and each has been 
responsible for the formation of oil and gas traps. 

The tilt which may be imparted to sediments largely controls the 
direction in which oil and gas move. In some fields the accumulation 
is due primarily to tilting of the porous bed into a monoclinal position. 
If, at the same time, erosion has exposed its margin at the surface the 
oil which moves upward through it will escape. Lighter oils are thus 
drained from the reservoir, but more viscous oils may, through loss of 
lighter fractions, form a brea which gradually seals the reservoir near 
the surface and becomes a barrier to further movement. Examples of 
this type of trap are found in the Sunset-Midway field, California, in 
which some of the sands are filled by tar near the surface (Pack, 1920, 
p. 87), and in the Lagunillas field, Venezuela, where the oil gradually 
decreases in Baumé gravity eastward as the sands rise toward the out- 
crop. More commonly, however, tilting has produced traps through 
combination with other factors, such as stratigraphic variation. 

Folding, causing anticlines and synclines, domes and basins, is in all 
probability the most important factor in producing traps for oil and 
gas. The first structural form recognized as controlling accumulation 
was the anticline, and for many years the petroleum geologist was 
chiefly concerned with the finding of domes in which the trapping of 
oil was primarily dependent on structural closure. Fields in which 
folding of this type is the primary cause of accumulation are numer- 
ous, and only a few of the most prominent need be mentioned. Long 
Beach, Calif., is the most productive dome in the United States, with 
a total yield of over 630,000,000 barrels. Santa Fe Springs, Elk Hills, 
and Kettleman Hills are other California fields of this type. Salt 
Creek, Wyo., the most productive field of the Rocky Mountain area, is 
a domal structure. Accumulation in the Seminole fields of Oklahoma 
is primarily on domal folds (Levorsen, 1929). Domal folding has 
been the controlling factor in forming traps in the Hobbs field, New 
Mexico, and in the Yates and Big Lake fields in west Texas. 


186 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


In Iran, the Haft Kel field is situated on a structural high on a long 
anticline, while the Masjid-i-Sulaiman field is on a more complicated 
anticlinal structure (Lees, 1938). In the Baku district of the U.S.S. R. 
such structures as Bibi-Eibat and Surakhany are typical domes, while 
most of the other fields are apparently anticlinal folds (Hobson, 1938). 

Faulting, resulting from both tensional and compressional forces, 
has been the controlling factor in the formation of another group of 
traps. The importance of faulting in oil accumulation did not receive 
recognition until about 20 years ago when the discovery of the Mexia 
field in East Texas, followed by that of a number of others in the same 
structural province, directed attention to this form of trap. In the 
Mexia district the regional dip of the sediments is eastward ; the faults 
nearly parallel the strike and are upthrown to the east, and the accumu- 
lation occurs in the upthrown block against the fault plane (Lahee, 
1929). Some 20 fields of this type have been found in the district, but 
elsewhere in the United States such fields are unusual. Whittier and 
Round Mountain are California examples. 

Overthrust faulting, while not the major factor in accumulation, is 
an important feature of such fields as Turner Valley, Alberta (Link and 
Moore, 1934), and McKittrick, California. Tlling (1938a) states that 
the Tabaquite field, Trinidad, appears to have accumulated in a thrust 
block. At Boryslaw, Poland, oil is believed to be trapped by the over- 
turn of a thrust block (Cizancourt, 1931). 

The penetration or deformation of sediments by intrusions, either 
saline or igneous, forms a varied group of traps for oiland gas. Under 
the weight of the overburden deeply covered salt masses become plastic 
and, at points of weakness, burst through the strata above them to form 
intrusive plugs. Depending upon the pressure, the volume of salt 
available, and the character of the overlying sediments, salt plugs show 
great variation in size, form, and extent of movement. Those of the 
piercement type have, in many cases, penetrated many thousands of 
feet of overlying deposits, often reaching the surface; on the other 
extreme are deep-seated domes which may have penetrated the beds 
above them for only a comparatively short distance. 

Piercement domes tend to drag upward the edges of the beds pene- 
trated, and the porous beds, sealed against the salt mass, form annular 
reservoirs. Ifthe salt plug does not reach the surface, overlying strata 
may be arched upward, forming circular reservoirs above the plug. If 
the section above the ascending salt mass contains beds of some degree 
of competency, faulting may result. The stretching of the beds over 
the plug may be compensated by the formation of a central graben. 
Tangential faults along the margins of plugs are frequent. In some 
regions, such as Germany and Rumania, the salt masses have been 
highly distorted by diastrophic movements, and the accompanying 
reservoirs have been intricately folded. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 187 


The most important area in which petroleum has accumulated in 
relation to salt plugs is in Louisiana and Texas, near the coast of the 
Gulf of Mexico. The discovery of the Spindletop field, Texas, in 1901 
originated a campaign of exploration which has resulted in the devel- 
opment of over 200 oil-bearing structures, of which over 100 are defi- 
nitely known to be salt domes, while most of the others, from struc- 
tural and other evidence, are believed to overlie deep-seated salt plugs 
(Barton and Sawtelle, 1936). Salt domes are important types of 
accumulation in Mexico, Germany, Rumania, Arabia, Transcaspia, 
and Iran. 

Igneous intrusions have caused the deformation of sediments and 
thus produced traps. Well-established examples of this type of ac- 
cumulation are the Thrall (Udden and Bybee, 1916), Chapman (Sell- 
ards, 1982), and Lytton Springs (Collingwood and Rettger, 1926) 
fields in Texas, the Furbero field in Mexico (DeGolyer, 1932), and, 
probably, the Motembo field of Cuba (Lewis, 1932). 

Combination traps.—Many oil fields are more complex in character 
than those which have been cited. Among larger fields Bradford, 
Pennsylvania, is an example of a trap formed by a combination of de- 
positional and deformational factors. Structurally the field is anti- 
clinal and has a gas cap and a marginal oil-water contact, but the 
lensing out of the principal reservoir sand within part of the area of 
closure has limited commercial production to only part of the structure 
(Fettke, 1938). In Cushing, Oklahoma, and other mid-continent 
fields, folding, faulting, and overlap all occur and to some degree have 
influenced the accumulation of oil and gas. Nienhagen, in Germany, 
Boryslaw, in Poland, and Bustenari, in Rumania, are European ex- 
amples of complex structures. Many other fields throughout the world 
could be mentioned as examples of involved conditions of accumula- 
tion but, to the extent that the facts have been ascertained, it has been 
found that the fundamental principal of buoyancy may be universally 
applied. 

TIME OF ACCUMULATION 


The sedimentary rocks in which petroleum has originated were de- 
posited in submerged areas in the earlier phase of an orogenic cycle. 
The volume of sediment which may be deposited in a single cycle in 
an area undergoing depression may reach enormous proportions. 
In the Rocky Mountain region over 10,000 feet of Upper Cretaceous 
sediments were deposited (Spieker, 1931), and in the Gulf Coast 
geosyncline the maximum thickness may be greater than 30,000 feet 
(Barton, Ritz, and Hickey, 1933). This earlier phase is one of quiet 
sinking (Bucher, 1933, p. 126), accompanied by compaction, and the 
sediments may be undisturbed by major diastrophic movements for 
many millions of year after deposition (Levorsen, 1935). The later 


188 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


phase of the orogenic cycle is one of crustal folding, during which 
ranges are formed that divide the original submergent area into sepa- 
rate basins. Additional materials are removed from the uprising 
ranges to add to the volume of sediment in these basins. Local folding 
and progressive overlap will, during this phase, form traps along the 
margins of the basins and the flanks of the uplifts (Herold, 1988, 
p. 837). 

The generalized history just outlined is typical of some areas which 
have undergone a single orogenic cycle. Most basins have had more 
complex histories; breaks in deposition are marked by unconformi- 
ties, and folding may have occurred at more than one period. The 
petroleum generated and retained in the sediments, equally with 
them, has been affected by all the forces exerted during the orogenic 
cycle. In contrast, petroleum is capable of movement, and its loca- 
tion has shifted es a result of changes in the attitude of the containing 
sediments. Each successive orogenic cycle, therefore, may influence 
the accumulation of petroleum and the location of petroleum deposits. 

Movement of petroleum during the earlier phase of an orogenic 
cycle is controlled primarily by the regional dip due to subsidence, 
and such movement, conceivably, can occur quite early in the history 
of the sediments. At the close of the first phase, the quiet sinking 
period, petroleum should have been concentrated toward the more 
elevated portion of the area of deposition insofar as the continuity 
of carrier beds would permit. During the second phase, the period 
of crustal folding, local traps are formed into which the petroleum 
migrates and accumulates. Levorsen (1935) has pointed out that 
those local traps which form in the area of primary regional accumu- 
lation tend to be more productive than similar traps outside such 
areas. 

In areas which have been affected by more than one period of 
orogenic movement some traps formed during earlier cycles have 
survived through later cycles while others have been destroyed. The 
traps that lie in the deeper parts of the basins have the better chance 
of survival. In some cases oil has migrated from rocks which were 
formed during the earlier cycle into those which were formed during 
a succeeding one; traps in basal sands above an unconformity have 
been filled with oil which has moved upward from older deposits 
below the unconformity. 

Traps which are formed during earlier cycles of orogeny or during 
earlier periods of folding have an advantage over those which are 
formed later in the history of a basin. The Kelsey anticline, Texas, 
is an illustration of a well-closed but barren trap which is thought 
to have been formed too late to accumulate oil in the Woodbine sand, 
which is so productive in other neighboring fields in the East Texas 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—-HEROY 189 


basin (Denison, Oldham, and Kisling, 1933). The East Texas field, 
in the same basin, is a trap formed in the Cretaceous cycle, the outline 
of which has shifted northward as a result of recent diastrophic 
movement (Levorsen, 1935). 

In conclusion, we may accept the generalization of David White 
(1935, p. 608) that the great migrations of oil and gas were accom- 
plished mainly in periods of orogeny. 


DISPERSION OF PETROLEUM 


It is probable that the oil and gas of every reservoir, however deeply 
buried and covered by “impervious” rocks, is escaping, either upward 
through the overburden or laterally along the bedding. Generally 
the process must be exceedingly slow and almost imperceptible, else 
most oil fields would, in the course of geologic time, have been de- 
stroyed by such leakage. The presence in Oklahoma of large oil 
fields of Ordovician age at depths of less than a mile illustrates how 
effective overlying rocks may be in preventing, through many mil- 
lions of years, the dispersion of petroleum. In contrast, the loss of 
petroleum from underground reservoirs may be relatively rapid and 
visible, as is evidenced by the large quantities of petroleum that have 
reached the surface in many areas. Such asphalt deposits as those 
at Pitch Lake in Trinidad are proof of how great such wastage may 
be under suitable conditions. 

In most petroliferous regions this reservoir loss is manifested by 
various surface indications, such as oil and gas seepage, deposits of 
brea and asphalt, bituminous dikes, tar sands, and mud volcanoes. 
These may be regarded as incidents of the erosion cycle in such areas. 
Where uplift and erosion have exposed the margin of an oil reservoir, 
so that a direct avenue of escape to the surface has been formed, its 
contents will soon be lost. Light oils and gas may be completely 
drained, while heavier oils, on reaching the surface, may solidify, seal 
the exposed reservoir beds, and thus retard the process of dispersion. 
Faults which in some cases form traps for petroleum may in other 
cases produce at the same time a channel along which some of the 
trapped oil may escape to the surface. The deformation which pro- 
duces folded structures may also develop faults in the flexed strata 
along which the oil and gas may pass upward to shallower reservoirs 
or to the surface. An example is the Salt Creek anticline, Wyoming, 
to which attention was first directed because of the presence of oil 
seeps near the axis of the structure and the development of which has 
revealed the presence of numerous faults, some of which extend to 
the surface (Beck, 1929). 

Another possible means for the dissipation of petroleum deposits 
is the movement of underground water. Students of Rocky Moun- 


190 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


tain geology (Krampert, 1934; Coffin and DeFord, 1934) have sought 
to explain the absence of commercial deposits of oil in certain struc- 
tures otherwise favorable as due to the flushing action of circulating 
water. 

Even though visible evidences of the escape of petroleum from under- 
ground reservoirs may not be detected, evidence is accumulating that 
petroleum and petroleum gases penetrate the overlying strata and 
eventually reach the surface in minute quantities. Such microseep- 
ages may be revealed by precise chemical analysis of soils and subsoils, 
and the results of such analyses support the belief that in some degree 
all oil deposits are subject to continuing dispersion (McDermott, 
1940.) 

DYNAMICS OF PETROLEUM 


Petroleum and natural gas, as they occur in the earth, are confined 
under pressure. Their geologic history is one of motion, and in their 
movement they obey laws of physics related to the flow of liquids and 
gases (Muskat, 1937). From the beginning of the oil industry it was 
observed that, when oil and gas sands were penetrated, the fluids which 
they contain were under pressure, the amount of which increased 
normally with depth. This was at first attributed to the weight of the 
overlying rocks and was called “rock pressure.” Lesley (1885) showed, 
however, that the pressure of the oil and gas in the reservoir was ap- 
proximately equivalent to the artesian head for the corresponding 
depth, and much less than the pressure which would correspond to the 
weight of the overburden. Nevertheless, the industry continued to use 
the term “rock pressure,” and it was not until many years later that 
pressure under which fluids are confined in underground reservoirs 
was termed “reservoir pressure” (Heroy, 1928). Reservoirs which 
occur in artesian basins and are controlled by hydrostatic head form 
one group, while those in which the porous bed does not reach the 
surface and consequently is not directly influenced by artesian con- 
ditions form another group. 

The outstanding example of a large oil field under artesian control is 
East Texas, in which the reservoir bed is the Woodbine sand. This 
formation outcrops in east-central Texas and, after passing under the 
East Texas syncline, is truncated along the west side of the Sabine 
uplift to form a stratigraphic trap. The original reservoir pressure in 
this field was 1,620 pounds at 3,300 feet below sea level, which closely 
approximates the calculated hydrostatic pressure. It is probable that 
the sand is continuously porous from the outcrop to the field and that 
the fluids in it are governed by a common pressure system (Millikan, 
1982, p. 902). 

Meinzer (1936) has pointed out that, in coastal plain areas, porous 
horizons may have a submarine outcrop and that there may be artesian 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 191 


balance between the portion submerged under salt water in the conti- 
nental shelf and the portion lying under the land. His reasoning may 
be extended to coastal plain beds which have no surface outcrops be- 
cause of overlap or up-dip pinching, but which may have a submarine 
outcrop at the edge of the shelf. An explanation is thus afforded of 
the normal reservoir pressures noted in coastal plain oil fields (Cannon 
and Craze, 1938). Fluid relations in a large coastal plain field, Conroe, 
Tex., have been well described by Michaux and Buck (1936). 

Reservoirs which are essentially sealed by surrounding rocks of low 
permeability may contain oil and gas under pressures which have no 
direct relation to the hydrostatic pressures corresponding to their 
depth. The oil and gas in such reservoirs may have pressures sub- 
stantially in excess of the equivalent hydrostatic pressure and tending 
to approach the pressure corresponding to the weight of the over- 
burden (Cannon and Craze, 1938). It has been noted that in some 
cases shallower reservoirs may have higher reservoir pressures than 
those in the same area at greater depths (Millikan, 1932). Reservoirs 
which are essentially lenticular in form and isolated from artesian 
conditions may be expected to contain oil and gas under a pressure 
determined primarily by the amount of gas which has migrated into 
the reservoir and, if the surrounding section were highly impervious, 
pressures approaching the weight of the overburden may be built up. 
Excess pressures in shallower strata may, however, in some cases be 
caused by supercharging from deeper horizons as a result of upward 
migration of oil and gas along zones of fracture or faulting. Unfortu- 
nately geologists, on the whole, have given scant attention to this 
phase of petroleum geology, leaving this interesting field mostly to 
petroleum engineers. 


CONCLUSION 


The natural history of petroleum, from genesis to dispersion, is 
cyclical. In some regions where petroleum deposits occur, only a 
single cycle is represented, while in others several cycles, either partial 
or complete, may have occurred. In the preceding pages the writer has 
described in sequence the phases which form a complete cycle and the 
character of each. While each phase has been the objective of much 
scientific investigation, there is great variation in the quality and com- 
pleteness of the results attained. This is partly inherent in the nature of 
the problems themselves. Science, however advanced, is as yet not 
adequately implemented to investigate some of them, and the progress 
in the solution of others may be ascribed to the immediate importance 
of the results; economic considerations frequently determine the 
amount and thoroughness of research. 

Although petroleum geologists are conscious of the inadequacy of 
their present information as to many details of the petroleum cycle, 


192 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


they have a feeling of pride that so much has beer definitely estab- 
lished. The basic principles announced a half century ago have been 
tested, evaluated, and amplified; the work of the fathers was so well 
done that little has been discarded. New and more precise laboratory 
and field methods have made possible many studies which could not 
have been carried to success even two decades ago. Such a compilation 
as the present paper would not be possible without the existence of a 
wealth of data which have resulted from an immense amount of 
investigation. 

This work still flourishes. Each unsolved problem challenges the 
attention of a new generation of investigators with fresh minds and 
new techniques. Large industrial and educational units are facilitat- 
ing research on a scale far beyond the capacity of the individual worker. 
It may be expected, therefore, that the rate at which our knowledge 
of petroleum geology has advanced will be accelerated during the com- 
ing years. The writer who, 50 years hence, may be called upon to review 
the progress of a century of petroleum geology will find that many of 
the baffling uncertainties of our time will have been cleared away ; many 
of the generalities and qualifications that characterize this paper will 
be replaced by more specific knowledge. Thrice armed though they 
may be, he and his contemporaries will still find in petroleum geology 
problems worthy of their steel. 


WORKS TO WHICH REFERENCE IS MADE 


In the following list are included the publications referred to in this paper. 
While it comprises only a small part of the literature on petroleum geology, refer- 
ence has been made to the more important publications in which the principles of 
petroleum geology are discussed. It will therefore to some extent serve as a guide 
to those who may be interested in more detailed consideration of this subject. 


ADAMS, JOHN EMERY. 

1934. Origin, migration and accumulation of petroleum in linfestone reser- 
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ASHBUEBNER, CHARLES A. 
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ATHy, L. F. 

1930a. Density, porosity, and compaction of sedimentary rocks. Amer. 
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1930b. Compaction and oil migration. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Bull., 
vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 25-35. 

ATWIHLL, E. R. 

1940. Significant developments in California, 1989. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. 

Geol., Bull., vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 1112-1125, fig. 3. 
BARTON, DONALD C. 

1934. Natural history of the Gulf Coast crude oil, in Problems of petroleunt 
geology. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Sidney Powers Mem. vol., pp. 
109-155. 


PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 193 


Barron, Dona C., Ritz, C. H., and Hickey, MAUDE. 
1933. Gulf Coast geosyncline. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Bull, vol. 17, No. 
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Barton, Donan C., and SAWTELLE, GrorGE (editors). 
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BEOK, EXLFRED. 
1929. Salt Creek oil field, Natrona County, Wyo., in Structure of typical 
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CoLLinewoon, D. M., and RettcrEr, R. EH. 
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DEGOLYER, E. 
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HEATH, DAISY WINIFRED. 
1937. Comprehensive index to the publications of The American Associa- 
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1861. Notes on the history of petroleum or rock-oil. Canadian Nat., vol. 6, 
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PETROLEUM GEOLOGY—HEROY 195 


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KRAMPERT, BE. W. 

1934. Geological characteristics of producing oil and gas fields in Wyoming, 
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LAHEE, FREDERIC H. 

1929. Oil and gas fields of the Mexia and Tehuanaca fault zones, Texas, 
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Less, G. M. 

1938. Reservoir rocks of Persian oil fields. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., 
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1938. The geology of the oil field belt of Iran and Iraq, in The science of 
petroleum, pp. 140-148. Oxford Univ. Press. 

Lrstry, J. P. 

1885. Some general considerations of the pressure, quantity, composition 
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657-680. 

1886. The geology of the Pittsburgh coal-region. Amer. Inst. Min. Metall. 
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LrvorsEN, A. I. 

1929. Greater Seminole district, Seminole and Pottawatomie Counties, 
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1935. Time of oil migration and accumulation (abstract). Oil Weekly, vol. 
79, No. 10, p. 16. 

1936. Stratigraphic versus structural accumulation. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. 
Geol., Bull., vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 521-530. 

Lewis, J. WHITNEY. 

1982. Occurrence of oil in igneous rocks of Cuba. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. 

Geol., Bull., vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 809-818. 
LInK, THEODORE, and Moors, P. D. 

1934. Structure of Turner Valley oil and gas field, Alberta. Amer. Assoc. 

Petrol. Geol., Bull., vol. 18, No. 11, pp. 1417-1453. 
LYELL, Str CHARLES. 

1842. Principles of geology: or, the modern changes of the earth and its 
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McCoy, Atex W. 

1926. <A brief outline of some oil accumulation problems. Amer. Assoc. 

Petrol. Geol., Bull., vol. 10, No. 11, pp. 1015-1034. 
McCoy, ALEx W., and Krytr, W. Ross. 

1934. Present interpretations of the structural theory of oil and gas migra- 
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Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Sidney Powers Mem. vol., pp. 253-307. 


196 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


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1890. Geol. Soe. Amer., Bull., vol. 1, p. 97. 
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1936. Movements of ground water. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Bull., vol. 
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1936. Conroe oil field, Montgomery County, Tex. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. 
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1932. Geological application of bottom hole pressures. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. 
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1933. East Texas oi] field. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Bull., vol. 17, No. 
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1934. Limestone reservoir rocks in the Mexican oil fields, in Problems 
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1937. The flow of homogeneous fluids through porous media. 763 pp. Me- 
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198 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


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THE 1942 ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA, HAWAII? 


By Gorpon A. MAcDONALD 


Geological Survey, U. S. Department of the Interior 
Honolulu, T. H. 


[With 2 plates] 


INTRODUCTION 


Mauna Loa volcano, on the island of Hawaii, is probably the 
largest and most active volcano in the world. It rises to a height of 
13,680 feet above sea level, and some 30,000 feet above the surrounding 
ocean floor. On the north and northwest its great lava shield abuts 
against the dormant or extinct volcanoes of Mauna Kea and Hualalai, 
and on its southeastern slope rests the smaller, younger shield of 
Kilauea volcano (fig. 1). 

Mauna Loa is a broad, basaltic shield volcano transected by three 
great series of fractures, known as rift zones, which intersect at the 
summit in the caldera of Mokuaweoweo. Along them have taken place 
most of the innumerable eruptions which built up the mountain. One 
rift zone extends from the summit southwestward to the southern 
point of the island. Another extends northeastward toward the city 
of Hilo, and a third, less prominent one trends northwestward toward 
Hualalai volcano. The rift zones are marked on the surface by many 
cinder cones, spatter cones, pit craters, and open fissures. 

Throughout recorded history, Mauna Loa has erupted on an average 
of once every 3.6 years, but the frequency of eruption may actually 
be somewhat greater owing to the possibility of small summit erup- 
tions having escaped notice during the earlier part of the period of 
occupation of the island by white men. During the 110 years since 
the first recorded eruption, in June 1832, Mauna Loa has been in ac- 
tivity approximately 2,527 days, or 6.3 percent of the time. Flank 
eruptions occupied about 3.3 percent of the total elapsed time, and 
eruptions in and near the summit caldera occupied 3 percent of the 
time. 

1 Published by permission of the Director, Geological Survey, U. S. Department of the 


Interior. Reprinted by permission from the American Journal of Science, vol. 241, No. 4, 
April 1943. 


199 


200 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The latest period of activity of Mauna Loa commenced on April 
26, 1942. A fissure opened across the caldera and a short way down 
the northeastern slope, and lava fountains played along it. Two 
days later the principal eruption began along a fissure in the north- 
east rift zone, at an altitude of 9,200 feet. Activity continued until 
May 10, 1942. The last preceding activity had been in 1940, when 


156° 155° 


2omiles 


156° 155° 
FieuRE 1.—Outline map of the island of Hawaii, showing the location of the 1942 
lava flow (solid black), and other historic flows of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. 


lava fountains played in the summit caldera with gradually abating 
strength from April 7 until August. 

The following account of the eruption of 1942 is based partly on 
personal observation and partly on data gathered from other ob- 
servers. The activity at the vent at 9,200 feet was watched at close 
range throughout its duration by a succession of witnesses, but the 
early summit activity was seen only from a distance. Most of the 


ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA—MACDONALD 201 


observations used, other than those of the writer, were made by the 
personnel of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaii National 
Park, and the writer wishes to thank all those who contributed in- 
formation for their generous cooperation. Special thanks are due 
Lt. P. E. Schulz for his description of the front of the flow. R. H. 
Finch, Director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, H. T. Stearns 
of the U. S. Geological Survey, and C. K. Wentworth of the 
Honolulu Board of Water Supply, have kindly read and criticized 
the manuscript. James Y. Nitta prepared the illustrations. 


PREDICTION OF THE ERUPTION 


The 1942 eruption of Mauna Loa was predicted by R. H. Finch 
several months in advance, on the basis of seismic activity, coupled 
with the known periodicity of the volcano. On February 8, 1942, 
a strong earthquake occurred on the line of the northeast rift zone 
near Hilo, at a depth of 27 miles.2, This was followed by a series of 
quakes which migrated up the northeast rift, across the summit, and 
a short way down the southwest rift, then returned across the summit 
and settled in the northeast rift. The seismic activity will be de- 
scribed in detail by Finch in another paper. 

In memoranda for the Superintendent of Hawaii National Park, 
dated March 1 and 5, 1942, later published in the local newspapers, 
Finch called attention to the growing uneasiness of Mauna Loa, 
indicated both by earthquakes and the accumulation of easterly tilt 
at the Volcano Observatory. Easterly tilt has long been known to 
indicate tumescence of Mauna Loa accompanying the rise of magma 
pressure preceding eruption. In a memorandum dated April 10 he 
wrote, “The progressive splitting of the northeast-southwest rift of 
Mauna Loa that was pronounced in February continued in March 
* * * Tf Mauna Loa erupts within the next several months, as 
seems probable, the indications point to a flank eruption from the 
northeast rift.”* Although military considerations forbade release 
of the prediction, its value as a contribution to practical volcanology 
remains unimpaired. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE ERUPTION 


EARLY SUMMIT ACTIVITY 


The eruption commenced on the evening of April 26, 1942, with 
activity along a fissure that opened part way up the cliffs on the west- 
ern side of Mokuaweoweo caldera and across the smaller pit crater, 


? Finch, R. H., personal communication. 


* Finch, R. H., Memorandum to the Superintendent of Hawaii National Park, April 10, 
1942. 


2902 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


known as North Bay, which adjoins Mokuaweoweo on the north. It 
was first reported by observers about 6 p. m., but the seismograph 
record shows that it actually commenced at 5:05 p. m* Lava foun- 
tains played along the fissure, building up small ramparts of spatter, 
and streams of molten pahoehoe* cascaded down the caldera walls 
forming a lava flow along the base of the western wall and around the 
west and north edges of North Bay. Shortly afterward the fissure was 
extended on down the northeastern flank of the mountain for a dis- 
tance of 214 miles, passing close to the south edge of the main cone 
of the 1935 eruption. Highly fluid lava issued from the fissure along 
its entire length. Small spatter ramparts were built in places, but in 
general there was little accumulation of spatter along the fissure. 
Much of the early lava was covered with a pumiceous top, half an inch 
to over an inch thick, owing to the extreme vesiculation of the gas-rich 
magma. The lava flow streamed northward down the mountain slope 
toward Mauna Kea for several miles, dividing into two major lobes. 
Pahoehoe near the source gave place to aa® at the lower ends of the 
flow. On the night of April 26 the fume column, illuminated by glow 
from the fountains beneath, was clearly visible from Kilauea, rising 
nearly vertically to an altitude of about 15,000 feet and then drifting 
southwestward. 

At 2 a.m., April 27, G. O. Fagerlund and B. J. Loucks, of Hawaii 
National Park, began the ascent of the mountain. The ground was 
quaking continually, averaging three or four distinct shocks a minute. 
On reaching the rest house at Puu Ulaula, at an altitude of 10,000 feet, 
the shocks appeared to originate directly beneath their feet, and a 
crude heavy pendulum set up by Loucks showed almost no horizontal 
displacement. They therefore decided to remain at Puu Ulaula in- 
stead of continuing to the summit, as had been planned, and as a result 
they had the rare privilege of witnessing at close range the opening 
phases of the flank eruption. 


FLANK ERUPTION 


Opening phase.—At 4:40 a. m., April 28, molten lava broke out 
along a fissure in the northeast rift zone about 114 miles east-northeast 
of Puu Ulaula (fig. 1). Fagerlund and Loucks reached the site of the 
eruption at 7:30a.m. At that time a nearly continuous sheet of lava 
fountains was issuing from a fissure over half a mile in length, form- 
ing the “curtain of fire” frequently observed during the opening 
stages of Mauna Loa eruptions. The fissure extended from an alti- 
tude of about 9,500 to 9,200 feet, with a trend of N. 85° E. The foun- 
tains played to heights of 200 to 300 feet above the ground. 

‘Finch, R. H., personal communication. 


© Pahoehoe=lava that congeals in smooth, sometimes ropy forms. 
§ Aa=lava with a rough, clinkery top. 


ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA—MACDONALD 203 


During the day the fissure gradually lengthened down slope, its 
course changing to N. 70° E., and by 3 p. m. the total length of the 
erupting fissure was about a mile. Fountains were active along both 
its upper and lower ends. Along its middle part lava welled forth 
copiously, forming a lava river which followed the course of the fis- 
sure. Along this portion of the fissure fountaining was much less 
prominent than elsewhere, but occasional bursts of fountain activity 
through the river suggested that the paucity of fountain activity re- 
sulted from drowning of the fountains by the lava river. Thin flows 
of very gas-rich pahoehoe were poured out on both sides of the rift 
and flowed downhill alongside it, changing to aa half a mile below 
the bend in the fissure. Fountain activity reached a maximum at 8 
p. m. on April 28, the fountains attaining a height of 500 feet, or a 
little more. 

The fissure along which the lava broke out extended up the mountain 
probably to the summit, and although no lava issued in the zone be- 
tween 10,000 and 12,000 feet, fume was observed at several localities. 
Fume was also noted at the source cone of the 1935 eruption. Lava 
extrusion at the summit decreased greatly on the 27th and appeared 
to have stopped when the flank eruption began. Fissuring was later 
found by R. H. Finch also to extend well down slope from the locus 
of the eruption. Several observers reported seeing new lava fountains 
on the northeast rift near the summit late in the afternoon of May 1, 
but this reported eruption was probably merely the effect of sunset 
colors on a fume cloud, as it was not visible after dark. Moreover, 
it appears unlikely that once the activity had broken out at 9,200 feet 
altitude, it would migrate back up the fissure and break out anew at 
or above 12,000 feet. 

Shortly after the outbreak at 9,200 feet altitude, lava issued at an- 
other locality 3 miles farther down slope, at an altitude of 7,800 feet. 
This lower locality had none of the characteristics habitually ex- 
hibited by true vents on Mauna Loa. The lava issued relatively 
quietly from beneath the toe of an older aa flow which overlies a still 
older brown pahoehoe. Fume was liberated in much less volume than 
at the vent at 9,200 feet, and no lava fountains appear to have been 
present. Only a very small amount of dense spatter was formed, and 
the lava was denser and much poorer in gas than that at the higher 
sources. Steam issued from arcuate fissures which lay at approxi- 
mately right angles to the flow and to the rift zone just above the point 
at which the lava issued.’ No traces of fracturing parallel to the rift 
zone could be found. This lower outbreak probably represents lava 
draining through an older pahoehoe tube which intersected the erup- 
tion fissure at some point higher up the mountain. 


TAn excellent aerial photograph of the lower source, showing these features, has been 
published in Life, vol. 12, No. 22, p. 36, June 1, 1942. 


204 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


After attaining its maximum length and strength on the evening 
of April 28, the fountain activity at the vent at 9,200 feet gradually 
became restricted to the central part of the fissure, building up a chain 
of cinder and spatter cones 1,000 feet long. The restriction of the 
fountains marked the end of the opening phase of the flank eruption. 
This opening phase was characterized by the “curtain of fire” extend- 
ing nearly uninterrupted along a fissure over a mile in length, and 
by the copious outwelling of lava along the fissure with the building 
of low ramparts of spatter but no true cones. 

Middle phase——The middle phase of the flank eruption was char- 
acterized by lava fountains restricted to the central part of the fissure. 
It was a phase of cone building. 

H. T. Stearns and the writer reached the lava fountains late in the 
afternoon of May 2. For 1,500 feet at its western end activity along 
the fissure was confined to the liberation of fume, although the walls 
in places were still red hot. At night pale blue flames, having the 
color of hydrogen flames, were seen at two places rising 6 or 8 feet 
above the ground. The lava fountains during the early phase of the 
eruption had built a rampart of spatter cones 10 to 20 feet high. 
In many places the spatter cones had bridged the fissure, and it was 
possible to cross to the other side. Several of the cones were partly 
coated with thin deposits of sulfur. The fume along the upper part 
of the fissure was largely steam, but the odor of boric acid was de- 
tected in several places. 

Lava fountains were still vigorously active for a distance of 1,000 
feet along the fissure, and had built up a chain of spatter and cinder 
cones to an average height of 75 feet (fig. 2). The westernmost of 
these cones had exceptionally steep sides, and enclosed a vent from 
which there was no true fountaining, but which liberated great rolling 
clouds of fume (pl. 1, fig.1). Occasional violent gas explosions at this 
vent hurled blocks of pumice high in the air. At other times periods 
of strombolian activity of a few minutes duration occurred, during 
which there were ejected ribbon- and spindle-shaped bombs which 
cooled during flight and struck the cone in a solid condition, to roll 
clattering down its sides. The most copious ejections of pumice were 
of several minutes duration, and were accompanied by a roaring sound 
of escaping gas. Blocks of pumice, of a pale tan color, some of them 
as much as 8 or 10 inches across, were projected to heights estimated 
at 1,000 to 2,000 feet. The larger blocks shattered on striking the 
ground. Smaller pumice fragments pattered down like rain on the 
hat brims of the observers. 

The rest of the cone chain was in typical Hawaiian activity. Lava 
fountains played to heights of 100 to 400 feet above the cones. At 
night the color of the molten lava in the fountains varied from 


ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA—-MACDONALD 205 


orange to pale yellow, indicating temperatures in the vicinity of 900° to 
1050° C. Irregular shreds of molten lava, many of them several feet 
across, were hurled into the air (pl. 1, fig. 2), accompanied by the 
constant evolution of large volumes of fume. The magma shreds 
gradually cooled during flight, and changed in color to red and then 
to purple, and many of them to black before they struck the ground. 
Most fell back into the vents, but occasionally showers of ejecta struck 
the outer slopes of the cones in splashes of fiery red liquid. The 
fume cloud ranged in color from white to bluish-gray and pale 
reddish-brown, the latter color being predominant. The cloud smelled 
strongly of sulfur dioxide. The ground in the vicinity of the vents 


O.lichest Wia vais 
500 FT 


Older lavas 


FicurE 2.—Geologic sketch map of the vent area at 9,200 feet altitude during the 
eruption of Mauna Loa, on May 2, 1942. 


was constantly agitated, the tremor resembling that caused by the close 
passing of a heavy railroad train. 

The pahoehoe flows extruded at the beginning of the eruption were 
cool enough to walk over, but too hot to sit on for more than a few 
minutes. Food was easily cooked over hot cracks in the lava, and 
glowing rock could be seen at depths of a few inches. The odor of 
boric acid was detected at several cracks in the lava, and the so-called 
foundry odor, resembling the smell of hot iron in a blacksmith shop, 
was constantly present. The lava was exceedingly frothy. Thin 
shells 2 or 3 inches thick covered cavities a few inches to 2 or 3 feet 
deep and several feet across. Many of these cavities were pahoehoe 
tubes, but others ended in lobes against the adjacent older lava with 
no possible means of escape for any enclosed liquid. The latter cavities 
are probably the result of inflation by expanding gases in the highly 
gas-rich, fluid pahoehoe. 


206 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


At the lower end of the cone chain there issued a lava river 50 feet 
wide which flowed seaward through an open channel along the course 
of the eruption fissure. The speed of the fastest-moving central part 
was estimated to be 15 to 20 miles an hour. This speed is comparable 
to that of 25 miles per hour determined by stop-watch observations 
by M. H. Carson during the 1926 eruption,’ and 7 to 19 miles per hour 
by C. K. Wentworth during the 1935 eruption.® Near the cones small 
fountains occasionally erupted through the lava river. It was impos- 
sible to approach close to the river on May 2, but on the 4th the writer 
crossed the eruption fissure and obtained an excellent view of the river 
from the north side near the lower end of the cone chain. Its surface 
undulated and bounded like that of a large river of water in flood. 
Broad standing waves, 3 or 4 feet in height, extended entirely across 
the river. Where it left the cone, its entire surface was one of orange- 
red molten lava, but crusts of gray, ropy pahoehoe started to form 
within 100 feet from the cone, and 200 yards downstream the river 
was completely crusted over. The crusts were repeatedly broken up 
and swept away, many fragments slowly tilting, elevating one edge 
above the river before sinking out of sight. 

On the morning of May 4 the fountain activity had become largely 
restricted to a single central fountain, which played to an average 
height of 150 feet above the cone, with occasional bursts going as high 
as 500 feet. The cone had increased in height to about 100 feet. 
The vent at the western end of the cone chain, which had been in 
strombolian activity on May 2, had become a roaring gas vent with 
occasional violent explosions hurling ejecta 500 feet in the air with a 
noise like artillery fire. The fume at the fountains had greatly in- 
creased in volume, and smelled strongly of sulfur dioxide. 

An epoch of frequent small lava flows which broke laterally from 
the cones probably commenced on May 2. Two such small flows of 
pahoehoe had already occurred, one on each side of the cone chain, 
previous to the afternoon of May 2. Both spilled over low places in 
the cone rim, and flowed only 100 feet or so beyond the foot of the 
cone. The one on the south side was probably erupted early on May 
2, for it still showed many glowing apertures on the afternoon of that 
day. In the early morning of May 4, E. G. Wingate saw the southern 
wall of the western cone partly collapse, liberating a short flow of 
viscous, slow-moving pahoehoe. At about 8:45 p. m. of the same 
day F. B. Herman witnessed the break-down of part of the cone, 
which liberated very hot fluid flows that carried away a small sec- 
tion of the cone wall. These lava streams broke out on both sides of 
the cone chain. That on the northern side soon rejoined the main 


§ Carson, M. H., personal communication. 
® Wentworth, C. K., unpublished memorandum, 1935, 


ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA—MACDONALD 207 


lava river, but that on the southern side formed a new flow which 
advanced down the mountain for a distance of about 6 miles, and 
continued flowing until May 7.1° The lowering of the lava level in 
the cone was accompanied by a temporary increase to about 600 feet 
in the height of the fountains, probably owing to the removal of part 
of the damping effect of the ponded lava on the gases rising through 
it. This new flow diverted a large volume of lava from the older 
flow, and was probably largely responsible for the cessation of move- 
ment at the front of the older flow which occurred on May 5 or 6. 

R. H. Finch visited the fountains on May 5 and 6, and reported that 
two flows were moving eastward from the cones. Both were pahoehoe 
for over half a mile from the source but changed to aa in less than 
a mile. At 7,000 feet altitude the new lava was in places 40 feet 
thick. 

On the morning of May 7, Paul and Sarah Baldwin, of Hawaii 
National Park, witnessed the outbreak of two more small flows from 
the western cone, which had become the site of the principal fountain 
activity. The first flow broke from the south side of the cone at 6: 30 
a. m., and continued for less than half an hour, forming a short 
stream of aa. At 7 a. m. the second flow escaped through a wall of 
the cone on its southwestern side, and formed a short pahoehoe stream 
along the south base of the cone chain. This flow did not escape over 
the edge of the cone, but forced its way through the cone wall, ap- 
pearing first as a slightly glowing bulge which slowly distended and 
developed into a stream of pahoehoe. These repeated short outflows 
heaped up a small lava dome about the edges of the cinder and spatter 
cone, burying the base of the cone to a depth of 30 feet. 

Declining phase—The cones were again visited by the writer on 
May 9. Activity had greatly decreased, and was restricted to two 
small fountains. The ejected lava was a deeper red than during 
the previous visit, indicating a decrease in temperature. The larger 
fountain occupied the western vent of the cone chain, and was 
in explosive activity, throwing lava clots 50 to 70 feet above the 
cone, but with no true jet of liquid lava visible. The smaller foun- 
tain occupied the next pit to the east, and was a true fountain 15 to 
20 feet high, with frequent explosive bursts reaching a height of 50 
feet. During the intervals between bursts, a jet of magma could be 
seen curving obliquely upward from one side of the pit and splashing 
down against the other side. A lava river 15 feet wide cascaded 
rapidly from this pit and flowed sluggishly off (pl. 2, fig, 1), at a rate 
of about half a mile an hour, forming a ropy crust in which the 
glowing lava beneath could be seen through the cracks. The lava 


10 Finch, R. H., press release, National Park Service, U. S. Dep. Interior, May 23, 1942. 
4 Finch, R. H., op. cit. 


208 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


river flowed at the top of a long embankment 30 feet high, enclosed 
between levees built by its overflow. The lava repeatedly broke 
through the levees and sent short streams down the side of the 
embankment. 

Several times fragments of the river bank crumbled away, tumbling 
large blocks of lava, as much as 10 feet across, into the river. These 
were rolled along, and wrapped up into ball-shaped masses by the 
moving lava. 

About 200 yards below the vent the lava was mostly aa. The 
walls of the aa channel were 10 to 15 feet high, and composed of 
loose blocks of clinker. Between them the aa stream was moving 
very slowly, blocks occasionally tumbling down and revealing the 
glowing, pasty interior. Along the axis of the aa stream flowed a 
river of pahoehoe, and across the jagged top of the aa blocks borne 
on the lava river could be seen moving slowly by. Small flows of 
pahoehoe occasionally broke from the lower portions of the aa. In 
one of these, when stirred with a stick, the molten lava had the 
consistency of very viscous taffy. 

On the morning of May 10, activity at the fountains was nearly at 
an end. The western vent showed moderate fuming and weak lava- 
ejection activity, throwing scattered shreds of red-hot lava 10 to 25 
feet above the rim of the cone. The other fountain and the lava 
river no longer existed. The channel occupied by the river was 
empty, and about 12 feet deep. In places its walls had collapsed. 
The cones were still very hot. It was impossible to stand still on them 
for more than a few moments, and sticks thrust into glowing cracks 
were quickly ignited. On the morning of May 11 the cone area was 
completely dead, except for minor amounts of fume. On May 31, 
small amounts of white fume, probably largely steam, were still rising 
along the fissure. 


LOWER PORTION OF THE LAVA FLOW 


The lava river that escaped from the lower end of the cone chain 
flowed seaward, dividing and reuniting like a braided stream, and 
finally being joined by that from the lower source to form a single 
flow. The earlier lateral outpourings formed broad fields of aa 
along the edges of the flow, but the actively moving central portion 
remained pahoehoe for about 6 miles, finally changing to aa at an 
altitude of about 6,500 feet. During the first few days the advance 
of the flow front was rapid. At noon on May 1 it was reported to 
have reached a point 15 miles from the 9,200-foot source, and only 
11 miles from the city of Hilo. If the advance continued at the same 
rate, it appeared likely that there might result serious damage to the 
Waiakea section of the city and possibly to Hilo harbor. 


ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA—MACDONALD 209 


The front of the lava advanced into a region of dense jungle. 
The only trained scientific observer to reach the flow terminus while 
it was still in motion was Lt. P. E. Schulz, formerly assistant at the 
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, who has kindly supplied the writer 
with an excellent description of the advancing lava. Mr. Schulz 
reached the lava flow on May 1. The jungle was extremely wet and 
swampy, and much rain water was standing or flowing on the surface 
of the ground. The flow was 20 to 25 feet thick, and was typical aa, 
with an exceedingly active front. Trees in the path of the flow were 
rapidly bowled over and burned. Contact of the lava with the water 
and wet vegetation resulted in large volumes of dense smoke and 
violent explosions which made impossible a close approach to the 
flow. 

The explosions were frequent, and caused great billowing black 
clouds to rise 500 to 1,000 feet in the air, the color of the cloud chang- 
ing after a minute or so to gray and then to white. Some of the 
explosions were probably caused by rapidly generated steam, but 
others were probably the result of combustion of hydrocarbon gases 
distilled from the inundated vegetation. The smell of marsh gas was 
distinct in the hollows near the lava. Explosion craters 10 feet or 
so across and a couple of feet deep were observed up to several 
hundred feet beyond the margin of the flow. These contained no new 
lava, nor any evidence of heating or alteration, and must have re- 
sulted from the migration of steam or explosive gases through lava 
tubes and other openings in the underlying older lava. 

The lava advanced at a speed estimated as 300 to 500 feet an hour, 
and the flow was also spreading laterally, but at a much slower rate. 
The movement of the edges of the flow could be observed at much 
closer quarters than could that of the flow front. “The lateral ad- 
vance was made by yellow-hot lava in small amount which oozed 
from the loose steep wall in a highly fluid condition. It was ap- 
parently of such low viscosity solely on the strength of its great heat. 
J was unable to detect any effervescence or other indication of escaping 
gas * * *, After 2 or 3 seconds the fluid material very abruptly 
lost its high mobility and became friable, forming fragments that 
rolled down the steep, rough flank. During the next 4 or 5 seconds 
* * * the fragments still remained soft enough so as not to make 
any appreciable sound, yet of such a consistency that the descending 
pieces fragmented as they bumped down the slope. Then the frag- 
ments cooled and hardened to the point that the characteristic clinking 
sound was made, and at this point the yellow-orange glow was gone, 
the fragments being quite red in color with grayed and darkened 
edges and projections.” 1 


“% Schulz, P. H., letter of June 11, 1942. 


210 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The advance of the flow toward Hilo probably stopped on May 5 
or 6, as a result of the diversion of part of the lava by the new flow 
that started on the 4th. The first definite confirmation of this fact 
came when H. T. Stearns and the writer crossed the flow on the 
morning of May 7, at an altitude of 6,100 feet. All movement had 
then ceased, although parts of the flow were still very hot. Red 
glowing lava could be seen in many places. The lava was nearly all 
aa, but a few small tongues of pahoehoe were observed. Accretionary 
lava balls, formed by the rolling up of viscous lava about some 
solidified center, were abundant.* Some had diameters of as much 
as 12 feet. One secondary fumarole was observed, consisting of a 
hot glowing area liberating a small amount of sulfurous fume, and 
encrusted with a thin deposit of sulfur. This secondary fumarole 
was located at the edge of one of the dead aa rivers, at the foot of 
the levee, and the edges of the lava rivers were generally found to be 
the hottest areas. Organic gases such as methane or ammonia, re- 
sulting from the partial volatilization of vegetation overflowed by 
the lava, were not observed, but were probably present at least in 
small amounts during earlier stages. 

The final termination of the lava is at an altitude of approximately 
2,750 feet, about 10 miles from the center of Hilo. The total length 
of the flow below the principal lateral vent at 9,200 feet altitude is 
approximately 16 miles. 


BOMBING OF THE LAVA 


On May 1, there apeared to be imminent danger that the lava flow 
might successively cut the Olaa flume which supplies water to the 
town of Mountain View, block the road around the island, and de- 
stroy part of the city of Hilo and the Waiakea plantation. Con- 
sequently, the United States Army decided to try to divert the flow 
by aerial bombing. It was proposed to break down the levees and 
allow the lava river to escape laterally, thus reducing or eliminating 
the supply of lava to the main front of the flow. R. H. Finch made 
a reconnaissance flight and selected the most favorable sites for 
bombing, but before the bombers could reach the area, it was covered 
by clouds. Therefore, the bombs were dropped higher up the flow 
at less favorable localities. 

Altogether, about 16 demolition bombs were dropped, some weigh- 
ing 300 and others 600 pounds. Most struck directly on the target. 
Some bombs were dropped on the lower source, but without appre- 
ciable effect. The others were dropped at a place where the open 
lava river swung against the outside of a long loop in its course, 


18 These have been termed bombes A roulement, but the name is inappropriate. Their 
origin is not at all like that of true volcanic bombs. 


ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA—-MACDONALD 211 


and where the levee was unusually narrow. The levee was broken, 
and a small lava stream escaped to one side of the main flow, but the 
topographic depression that had guided the original flow also guided 
the new branch. It flowed parallel to the main river for a short 
distance, and then rejoined it. 

Although the bombing had no effect in stopping the flow, it did 
demonstrate that under favorable circumstances it might, by breaking 
down the levees, be possible to create new branches of a flow and 
thus retard the advance of the main front. Total diversion of the 
flow would, however, depend on a combination of favorable circum- 
stances, including a lava river flowing in a channel] higher than the 
surrounding territory, narrow levees that could be broken down by 
bombing, and topography that would direct the new flow away from 
the old one rather than back into it. The necessity for further 
bombing was removed by the stagnation of the principal flow a few 
days later. 

There appear to be three manners in which bombing may cause 
the formation of new branch flows, and thus lessen or terminate the 
advance of the previous lava front. One of these involves the break- 
ing down of a narrow levee along an open lava river, as was done 
in the 1942 eruption. Another and similar method is the breaking 
down of part of the cone wall, allowing lava to escape laterally and 
form a new flow, as it did naturally during the 1942 eruption, on 
May 4. The third method involves the breaking in of the roof of 
a lava tube through which the lava river is flowing. This may, if the 
roof of the tube is thick enough, block the tube with solid fragments, 
or it may cause local congealment of the lava, perhaps partly or en- 
tirely through violent stirring by the explosions resulting in local 
change of the flowing lava from pahoehoe to aa. The local congeal- 
ment may plug the tube, resulting in the development of a new lava 
river. This appears to have happened as a result of the bombing of 
the 1935 lava flow, ** but was not to be expected in the 1942 eruption, 
where the lava river was open, not enclosed in a tube. 

It appears to the writer very doubtful if bombing would ever cause 
the termination of an eruption. Its value probably lies only in the 
possibility of delaying the advance of the main flow front, by causing 
the formation of new lateral flows, or with very favorable topography 
by deflecting the flow into new channels. 


CONCLUSIONS 


The 1942 eruption of Mauna Loa opened, like most others, with 
activity in and near the summit caldera. The principal activity, a 


44 Jaggar, T, A., The Volcano Letter, No. 431, January 1936, and No. 465, July-September 
1939. 


212 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


flank eruption on the northeast rift, began 2 days later. The flank 
eruption may be arbitrarily divided into three phases, which are 
characteristic of most flank eruptions of Mauna Loa. They may be 
summarized as follows: 

1. A period of a few hours during which very hot fluid lava is 
squirted from a narrow fissure, forming a nearly continuous wall of 
lava jets thousands of feet in length. Lava extrusion forms extensive 
thin flows. Low ramparts of agglutinate are built by spatter along 
the fissure, but no large cones are formed. 

2. Restriction of the lava fountains to a relatively short medial 
portion of the fissure, and the building of cinder and spatter cones. 
One or more major flows issue continuously from the cones, and numer- 
ous minor flows may occur. 

8. Decline of the fountains, with cooling of the liquid lava in the 
vent, and decrease in the amount of liberated gas. The flow of lava 
may die out with the fountains, or may continue for weeks or even 
months after the cessation of fountain activity. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Macdonald PLATE 1 


1. LAVA FOUNTAINS AT 9,200 FEET ALTITUDE, SEEN FROM 
THE SOUTHWEST, MAY 2, 1942. 


The fountains are about 200 feet high. In the foreground new pahoehoe lava has overflowed older aa. 


2. CENTRAL LAVA FOUNTAIN OF THE ACTIVE CONE CHAIN, MAY 3, 1942. 


The large lava shred is about 100 feet above the rim of the cone. The light-colored ejecta are ascending 
and the darker, cooler ejecta are falling back. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Macdonald PLATE 2 


Ro Oe 


1. LAVA RIVER 15 FEET WIDE, ISSUING NEAR EAST END OF 
CONE CHAIN ON MAy 9, 1942. 


The lava in the foreground was still hot enough to scorch shoe leather. 


2. LAVA FOUNTAINS AND FLOWS AT 9,200 FEET ALTITUDE, 
SEEN FROM THE NORTH, MAy 5, 1942. 


The flow in the foreground is the result of the partial breakdown of the cone on May 4. Aerial photograph 
by Allan Campbell for Aeme Newspictures, Ine. 


NEW METALS AND NEW METHODS? 


By C. H. DEscu, F. R. S. 


There has been an enormous increase in the production of the most 
important metals, the output doubling itself in quite a short period: 
12 years for copper, 17 for pig iron, 18 for tin, and so on. Along with 
this quantitative growth, the development of modern industry has 
brought with it remarkable qualitative changes, elements which until 
lately were curiosities of the laboratory rising into industrial impor- 
tance. Aluminum, which 75 years ago had only been obtained in quanti- 
ties of a few pounds, had a world production at the beginning of the 
War approaching a million tons, while its later development on both 
sides of the Atlantic has been on a very large scale. Aluminum is not 
one of the rare metals; it is, in fact, the most abundant of all metals 
in the earth’s crust, but at present bauxite, a rich mineral of very local 
distribution, is alone used for its extraction. But elements of rare 
occurrence, such as tungsten, molybdenum, and vanadium, now occupy, 
in consequence of the ever-increasing demands of the engineering in- 
dustries for materials of higher strength or other special properties, 
a key position out of all proportion to their abundance. This is largely 
due to the discovery that the properties of a metal may be profoundly 
altered by very small additions of another element, metal or nonmetal. 
Pure iron is even softer than copper, but less than 1 percent of carbon 
converts it into steel which may be made so hard as to scratch glass. 
This fact had been discovered empirically many centuries ago, but now 
that the process is better understood there are many other instances 
of the same kind. Copper can be made hard enough to serve as springs 
and even as nonsparking mining tools by adding 2.5 percent of beryl- 
lium, while the soft metal lead may be strengthened, so as to offer a 
greater resistance to frost when used for water pipes, by alloying with 
so little as 0.05 percent of tellurium. 

These and similar observations have led to important developments 
in metallurgy depending on the use of comparatively rare metals which 
are mostly found only in local concentrations in various parts of the 
earth. In a statistical table, the production of some of the minerals 


1 Paper read at the Conference on Mineral Resources and the Atlantic Charter arranged 
by the Division for the Social and International Relations of Science of the British Associa- 
tion on July 25. Reprinted by permission from Nature, vol. 150, No. 3806, October 10, 1942. 

566766—44 15 213 


214 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


from which these rare elements are obtained may not seem impressive, 
but the access to them may be an important factor in the capacity of a 
country to produce machinery and other constructions into which 
metals enter. 

The usefulness of the less common metals is, of course, not confined to 
small additions. The possible combinations of metals with one an- 
other are virtually infinite, and in spite of the vast amount of research 
and practical experience in this field, there must be many valuable 
combinations as yet undiscovered. The first recognition, partly acci- 
dental, that steel could be made to resist corrosion by incorporating 
14 percent or so of chromium, led to the development of the important 
class of stainless steels, while the new magnet steels, containing alu- 
minum and nickel, and in their later forms also cobalt and copper, 
have brought about a revolution in the construction of electrical instru- 
ments and loudspeakers, the very high magnetic concentration which is 
possible with them enabling very small permanent magnets to be used. 
For other purposes, such as the clutches used for holding work in mill- 
ing and grinding machines, they replace electromagnets. With these 
steels it is possible to realize the image of Mahomet’s coffin—heavy 
bars floating in the air in consequence of their strong magnetic 
repulsion. 

A few of the rare metals find applications depending on their own 
peculiar properties. Thus tungsten, with its very high melting point 
of 3650° C., has superseded all other materials for the filaments of 
electric lamps. The invention of the fountain pen called for an ex- 
ceedingly hard and incorrodible substance for the tips of the gold 
nibs, and this was found in a native alloy of osmium and iridium. 
Tantalum has proved specially suitable for the spinnerets used in mak- 
ing artificial silk, rhodium and indium for depositing in thin layers 
on other metals for protection against corrosion, and so on. The non- 
metal selenium is used in photoelectric cells. Further uses of this kind 
will present themselves as the properties of the less common elements 
are studied more completely. . 

The high melting point of some of the metals has led to research in 
two main directions. On one hand, it has been necessary to devise 
means of making metals compact and strong without melting them; 
and on the other, to develop new materials and new techniques for op- 
erations at temperatures higher than those in ordinary metallurgical 
furnaces. Tungsten cannot be melted in a container of any known 
refractory material. The powder obtained by reducing its oxide is 
therefore packed into the form of bars under pressure and heated elec- 
trically until the particles cohere, and is then hammered in a special 
way until its strength is sufficient to allow of its being forged or drawn 
into wire. The same process has been applied to other metals, and a 


NEW METALS AND NEW METHODS—DESCH 215 


new branch of technology, known as powder metallurgy, has grown up. 
Not only the metals of high melting point, but also copper, bronze, 
and even the low-melting alloys of tin, are prepared in the form of 
small particles and made to cohere by heat and pressure. 

The method has several advantages. Small objects may be produced 
of accurate shape, requiring no machining, by pressing in dies, while 
the mass may be made completely solid or given any required degree 
of porosity. Such porous masses are particularly useful for bearing 
metals, the spongy metal holding the lubricant better than by any ar- 
rangement of grooves. The method of consolidating a powder is also 
used in the making of carbide tools. Certain very hard compounds, 
especially the carbides of tungsten and titanium, which for many pur- 
poses can replace diamonds, are brittle in the mass, but if crushed and 
mixed with a metallic powder, mainly cobalt, and then heated until 
perfect union with the binding material is brought about, yield a com- 
posite mass which is excellent for tools and dies. 

The chief obstacle to chemical operations at very high temperatures, 
1600° C. or above, lies in the difficulty of finding materials for furnace 
construction and for containing vessels which are both strong and 
resistant to chemical attack at such temperatures. The ordinary fire 
clays become soft and are attacked by slags. A few oxides, especially 
alumina, magnesia, thoria, and beryllia, meet severe requirements in 
this field, but their refractory qualities are lessened by quite small 
proportions of impurity, and their preparation calls for special tech- 
nique, which has been developed as a result of long research in the 
laboratory, but has as yet been little applied on a large scale. When 
such materials become available in quantity—and there is no difficulty 
in principle, although the procedure may be costly—we shall see im- 
portant developments in chemistry and metallurgy at high tempera- 
tures. It is interesting to note that it is the oxides of some of the rare 
elements—thorium, beryllium, and zirconium—which have the highest 
softening points among the refractory materials, so that their impor- 
tance will grow with the extension of high-temperature processes. 

In the heating of metals or other conductors, it is not necessary 
that the heat should pass through the walls of the containing vessel, 
as it does when a metal is melted in a crucible furnace. Modern 
heating by induced currents of high frequency allows the heat to be 
generated where it is required, that is, within the mass to be heated. 
This involves a less severe tax on the refractory materials, and also 
makes it possible to enclose the charge in an outer closed vessel which 
remains cold, so that the operation can be carried out in a high 
vacuum or in an atmosphere of some inert gas. This is not merely 
a laboratory device, but is used on a large scale in a number of manu- 
facturing operations, which will become more numerous in the future. 


216 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Melting in a vacuum, out of contact with furnace gases, gives a means 
of preparing many substances in a state of great purity and sound- 
ness, unobtainable in other ways, and is already applied to certain 
alloys in amounts of several tons at a time. 

Many chemical reactions are made possible or are accelerated by 
high pressures. The autoclave has long been a familiar piece of 
chemical plant, but some of the processes for the production of am- 
monia from the air or for the hydrogenation of coal to form oils 
and petrol called for higher pressures than those of the usual auto- 
clave, and recent work, especially in the United States, has shown 
the remarkable results which may be obtained under pressures of 
many thousands of atmospheres. To construct vessels to be oper- 
ated at such pressures, sometimes combined with high temperatures, 
naturally involves entirely new engineering methods. The materials 
used are mainly steels, although hard carbides may have to be used 
for certain parts; but for the highest pressures counterbalancing 
stresses have to be applied by shrinking one cylinder over another or 
in various ways producing an internal stress opposite to that which 
will arise in operation. Here is another new branch of engineering 
of great scientific interest, extending the range of usefulness of known 
materials. 

The substitution of one metal for another for particular purposes 
is not always due to inherent advantages, but is often a consequence 
of a policy of self-sufficiency adopted by an industrial country. This 
motive has been very prominent in recent years. It is natural that 
Germany, producing much aluminum but very little copper, should 
adopt the lighter metal for overhead electric power cables, but a 
similar replacement in the windings of motors and dynamos was 
purely due to conditions of blockade and could not be defended on 
other grounds. During the period of armament and of hostilities 
such substitutions have been very numerous, but the subject is too 
big to be entered on here. A few instances of substitution under 
normal conditions may be mentioned. The saving of weight by using 
light alloys of aluminum or magnesium in place of steel has mainly 
been utilized in aircraft and rolling-stock construction, but it has 
occasionally been applied in ordinary structural work. <A bridge in 
Pittsburgh, having been condemned as insufficiently strong for the 
increased traffic, was lightened by replacing the wrought-iron road 
girders and floor by aluminum alloy. The main girders were still in 
good condition, and the lightening of the dead load gave the bridge 
a new lease of life. 

The substitution of one material for another is not, as a rule, a 
simple matter. Metals differ not only in strength but also in elastic 
properties, and this difference has to be allowed for. The new Quebec 


NEW METALS AND NEW METHODS—DESCH 2g 


Bridge was designed to take advantage of the high tensile strength 
of nickel steel, the designers considering that the Forth Bridge, a very 
stable structure, was unnecessarily heavy. The disaster of 1907, when 
the unfinished bridge collapsed, was due to the crumpling of the lower 
members, although calculation had shown that the direct load-carry- 
ing capacity was ample. It has been proposed to use alloys of 
aluminum on a large scale in shipbuilding, their use in small vessels 
having proved successful, while the particular alloys used—those with 
magnesium—are highly resistant to corrosion by sea water. In chang- 
ing from steel to light alloy, however, it would not be enough to 
calculate the dimensions of each member to give a strength equal to 
that in a steel ship. The hull would float too high in the water, and 
problems of stiffness would arise from the very different elastic prop- 
erties; to build a successful vessel the design would have to be new 
from the beginning. 

So, when the hard carbide steels were introduced to take the place 
of tool steels for very heavy work or large output, allowing cuts to be 
made on a lathe at much higher speeds than before, advantage of the 
improved properties could not be taken until the machines themselves 
had been completely redesigned to allow of such high speeds without 
undue vibration; and in fact the introduction of carbide tools has 
meant a revolution in the machine-tool industry, much plant intended 
for large outputs being rendered obsolete. 

Three examples may be given of the substitution of an entirely new 
material for one of which the supplies have been found to be in- 
adequate or too costly. Platinum, a metal of very local occurrence, 
has been largely replaced for chemical purposes, fused silica taking 
its place in the concentration of sulfuric acid, and iron oxide in various 
catalytic processes. Ona larger scale, Chile nitrate, a product formed 
under quite exceptional climatic conditions and almost unique, is no 
longer indispensable as a fertilizer, the nitrogen compounds required 
for agriculture and explosives being obtained synthetically from the 
air. The third example is the introduction of plastics, resinlike sub- 
stances which may be given the most varied properties. For many 
purposes they replace metals, and when reinforced by textile material 
or paper have a strength comparable with that of a metal. Trans- 
parent varieties replace glass and are far less brittle; other types take 
the place of porcelain and earthenware. The manufacture of plastics 
is one of the rapidly growing industries, and the uses of these new 
materials are continually being multiplied. 

It must be realized that even such substitutions as these do not 
necessarily lessen our dependence on mineral resources, although the 
relative importance of different deposits may be altered. Nitrogen 
compounds are obtained by the use of electric power, which in some 


218 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


countries is derived from water, but in some of the most highly in- 
dustrialized countries has to come from the combustion of coal. Many 
of the plastics are also derived from coal or petroleum, but being 
organic compounds, there is always the possibility of producing them 
from vegetable matter, as for example through the production of 
alcohol by fermentation and its conversion into more complex com- 
pounds. Such a procedure would be in line with the policy of depend- 
ing on current revenue, derived from plants, rather than drawing un- 
necessarily on mineral capital, which, once exhausted, is not replaced. 

Much might be said of means of economizing metals: the use of 
structures built up by welding, in place of heavy castings; the com- 
bination of concrete with steel in buildings and bridges; the saving of 
valuable metals by employing them as thin coatings on mild steel in 
chemical plant, and so on; but space does not permit. As new ma- 
terials come into use and new techniques are developed, while at the 
same time the known reserves of some indispensable metals are being 
depleted, it becomes clear that the efficient use of the world’s mineral 
resources demands systematic planning. First of all, a far more 
thorough world survey is needed, gathering together the information. 
collected by prospectors in the interest of large industrial corpora- 
tions as well as by the various national surveys. Such a survey would 
be the essential basis of any system of international control of mineral 
resources. 


OCEANOGRAPHY’ 


By Henry C. STETSON 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 


INTRODUCTION 


Oceanography is a young science and in the modern meaning of the 
term includes not only the study of the physics and chemistry of the 
sea water itself but the animals and plants that live in it, the sediments 
that have settled out of it, together with conditions governing their 
transportation and deposition, and the topography and geologic struc- 
tures of the various basins that contain it. Inclusiveness, however, is 
not solely the result of youth, for by its very nature the different 
branches will always be closely interwoven. For instance, the problems 
of the chemist also concern the biologist studying the ecology of ani- 
mals in the sea, and they will also be of importance to the geologist if 
an adequate attack is ever to be started on the diagenesis of sediments. 
The forces governing the different types of currents are of interest to 
physicist and geologist alike, and it has recently been demonstrated 
that some of the principles of oceanic circulation are equally applicable 
to the atmosphere. 

The different divisions are further tied together by the purely prac- 
tical necessities which the study of the ocean imposes. A seagoing 
vessel is expensive to acquire and to mantain, and in addition there is 
the cost of the special equipment which a research ship must have. An 
investigator whose field work is carried out by such costly and time- 
consuming methods has little choice but to work in conjunction with 
others whose data likewise must be gathered by the same means. 

Surveying, sounding, and charting have always played a part in 
oceanographic expeditions, but, until recently, geological work has 
been secondary. Small bottom samples were taken in the course of 
routine sounding, and a generalized knowledge of the areal distribu- 
tion of the oceanic sediments was early acquired, but here the matter 
rested. However, before tracing the growth and development of the 
geological branches of this science, it is necessary to review the begin- 
nings of the subject as a whole. 


1Reprinted by permission from Fiftieth Anniversary Volume, Geological Society of 
America, June 1941. 


219 


220 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 


BIRTH OF THE SCIENCE 


On December 21, 1872, H. M. S. Challenger sailed from Portsmouth, 
England, on what proved to be one of the memorable voyages of his- 
tory. It lasted 314 years, circumnavigated the globe, and investiga- 
tions were carried on in every ocean except the Arctic. It was the first 
combined assault on the ocean with all the techniques which were then 
available. Nothing approaching this undertaking in detail and com- 
pleteness had been attempted heretofore or even contemplated. At 
each station the following observations were made insofar as practi- 
cable: The depth was determined and a bottom sample taken; serial 
samples of water were obtained from the surface to the bottom for 
chemical and physical examination; serial temperatures were taken 
from the surface to the bottom; a fair sample of the bottom fauna was 
dredged, and samples from intermediate depths and from the surface 
were taken in townets; atmospheric and meteorological conditions 
were noted; and the direction and rate of the surface currents were 
observed, and at some stations attempts were made to ascertain the 
movement of the water at various depths, 

The initiative for this undertaking was furnished by the interest and 
enthusiasm of two British naturalists, Dr. W. B. Carpenter and Prof. 
C. Wyville Thomson. A few years before, through the influence of 
the Royal Society, the Admiralty was persuaded to fit out an old gun- 
boat, the Lightning, for a dredging and sounding trip in the vicinity 
of the Faroe Islands. Biological dredging was carried out in a Little 
more than 600 fathoms, which was a record for that time. This voyage 
proved so successful, in spite of bad weather, limited equipment, and 
a poorly found ship, that in 1869 the Admiralty was again persuaded 
through the same channels to fit out another ship for similar purposes. 
The Porcupine was a better vessel, and more extended cruises were 
taken around the British Isles, into the Bay of Biscay, and the Medi- 
terranean. Successful dredgmg was carried on to over 2,400 fathoms, 
and it was all done with hemp rope. On these cruises temperatures 
were taken at various depths on the dredging stations. Having demon- 
strated the feasibility and the scientific importance of this type of 
research at a time when attempts to lay transoceanic telegraph cables 
were drawing attention to the ocean basins because of the need for 
more accurate knowledge of their topography, the moment was oppor- 
tune for projecting a major expedition. 

Wyville Thomson, who was knighted for his leadership of the 
expedition, died a few years after its return, and the task of preparing 
the reports fell to John Murray. The 50 quarto volumes, with many 
specialists contributing, are evidence of the huge quantity of data 


OCEANOGRAPHY—STETSON PPAl| 


collected. Although the publications in biology bulk by far the largest, 
nevertheless considerable geological information was also obtained. 
The depths and main contours of the ocean basins were determined 
for the first time, and the general distribution of the bottom deposits 
was mapped. Many out-of-the-way corners of the world were charted, 
and something was added to our knowledge of ocean currents both 
on the surface and at various depths. Pioneer work was also accom- 
plished in the field of hydrography and on the chemistry of the ocean. 
Today it is, of course, easy to pick the flaws. Methods in every field 
have become more precise; improved gear has been developed as well 
as more exact procedure. Nevertheless, theirs was the pioneer attempt, 
and with that voyage the broad framework of the science as a whole 
was laid down to remain scarcely altered until modern times. Others 
have profited by their experiences and improved on their results, but, 
taken by itself, no other subsequent expedition has left so deep an 
impress. 

Interest was so stimulated in other countries that a succession of 
deep-water expeditions to various parts of the world followed. By 
1900 the United States had sent out Blake, Albatross, and Tuscarora; 
the French, 7'ravaillewr and Talisman, the Germans, Valdivia and 
Gauss; the Italians, Vettor Pisani, the Danes, Jngolf; and the Dutch, 
Siboga, and this by no means completes the list. None of these cruises 
was so extended as that of the Challenger, and although the gear was 
constantly being improved the work was laid out along essentially the 
same lines. Although the expedition sailed more than 50 years ago, 
the voyage marks the birth of oceanography as a science. Conse- 
quently some description of the vessel and her gear is pertinent as a 
background against which to view modern developments. 


EARLY EQUIPMENT AND METHODS 


Selected by the British Admiralty for this voyage, the Challenger 
was a corvette of some 2,000 tons with auxiliary steam. The guns 
were removed, and she was refitted in various other ways for her new 
purpose. She still remained a navy vessel, however, and Capt. George 
S. Nares, an officer of much experience in surveying, was given 
command. Prof. C. Wyville Thomson was in charge of the civilian 
scientists, and the work of the naval and civilian staffs was kept 
separate. Thomson (1877, p. 11) writes of the voyage: 
the chart room * * * is a commodious compartment on the starboard side, 
with ranges of shelves stocked with charts and hydrographic, magnetic, and 
meteorological instruments. All work in these departments, as well as the 


whole of the practical operations in dredging, sounding, and taking bottom and 
serial temperatures, is conducted by the naval officers. 


» 


222 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The natural-history workroom corresponded with this on the port 
side, and a chemical laboratory was also fitted up. These were both 
in charge of the civilians. 

All soundings were taken with a specially made hemp line wound 
on reels. The sounding instrument was a tube around which de- 
tachable weights were fitted. On striking the bottom the weights 
were released, and the tube was hauled to the surface with its plug 
of sediment or perhaps a short core. The line was marked off every 
25 fathoms, and, in deep water, contact with the bottom was ascer- 
tained by the slackening in the rate at which the line ran out. 
All hydrographic work—that is, the taking of temperatures and 
water samples—was done with this same line. Hemp rope 2, 21, 
and 3 inches in circumference, and spliced in 3,000-4,000 fathom 
lengths, was used for trawling and dredging. Steam winches were 
used for hoisting; but, even so, the labor of handling and coiling the 
miles of rope required for the deep tows must have been very great. 
However, as warships always carry proportionately larger crews than 
other vessels, plenty of manpower was available. It is interesting 
to note that with present-day equipment exactly the same work can 
be, and is, done by three men in a watch. 

In 1872 Sir William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, seeking an im- 
provement in the laborious and not too accurate method of sounding 
with rope, developed a machine for using piano wire. The great 
disadvantage of rope for sounding is the frictional resistance it 
presents to water. Not only does it take longer to run out than does 
wire, but the currents encountered often throw it into large bights, 
making the sounding inaccurate. Kelvin’s method with various 
modifications gradually came into general use and, up to the in- 
vention of echo-sounding wire, was used in all surveying. At the 
start, however, difficulties were encountered in securing wire of suf- 
ficient tensile strength and in making strong splices, and although 
the Challenger had one of these machines on board, it was never 
used. It is interesting to note, however, that only 2 years later 
Lieutenant Commanders Howell and Sigsbee (1880), of the United 
States Navy, adopted wire and used it successfully on the United 
States Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Blake, which they suc- 
cessively commanded. Sigsbee modified Kelvin’s machine and in- 
vented another which bears his name, but the principle remained 
the same. 


LOUIS AND ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, MONACO, AND NANSEN 


Four individuals deserve special mention in this historical review for 
their unique accomplishments: Louis and Alexander Agassiz, who were 
responsible for the inception and growth of oceanography in the 
United States, the Prince of Monaco, and Fridtjof Nansen. 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 223 


Louis Agassiz’ interests in the field of natural history were exceed- 
ingly catholic, and oceanography was but one of the many matters 
which came in for a share of his attention. Throughout his lifetime 
his relations with A. D. Bache and Benjamin Pierce, the superintend- 
ents of the United States Coast Survey, were most cordial, and his 
suggestions for projects which could be carried out from Government 
vessels, in addition to their regular surveying duties, were always wel- 
come. The man who was responsible for the actual dredging was L. F. 
Pourtalés, one of Agassiz’ associates who had followed him from 
Switzerland to America in 1848 and who 2 years later became an assist- 
ant on the Survey. Today he is comparatively obscure, although he 
was the pioneer of deep-water dredging in this country and antedated 
the first English cruises. In 1869 he published a short account of the 
sediments of our east coast continental shelf, which is believed to be 
the first paper on modern marine sediments to appear in this country 
(U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1869, appendix No. 11, pp. 220-225). 
Although Agassiz was primarily a zoologist, his interest in geological 
matters was always keen, and in a report to Pierce on the work of the 
Bibb in the Gulf Stream and off Florida and Cuba appear the following 
observations (1869, pp. 368-370), which are of interest considering 
the date: 


From what I have seen of the deep sea bottom, I am already led to infer that 
among the rocks forming the bulk of the stratified crust of our globe, from the 
oldest to the youngest formation, there are probably none which have been formed 
in very deep waters. If this be so, we shall have to admit that the areas now 
respectively occupied by our continents, as circumscribed by the 200-fathom curve 
or thereabout, and the oceans at greater depth, have from the beginning retained 
their relative outline and position; * * * Moreover, the position of the 
cretaceous and tertiary formations along the low ground east of the Alleghany 
range is another indication of the permanence of the ocean trough, on the margin 
of which these more recent beds have been formed. * * * Geologists, and 
especially those of the school of Lyell, have again and again assumed the slow 
rising of extensive tracts of land from beneath the water and taken all sorts 
of loose materials * * * as evidence of its former submersion. But since 
the dredge has been applied to exploration of the deep, and a great variety of 
animals, in a profusion rivaling that of shoal water, have been brought up, 
* * * no observer is justified in considering extensive deposits of loose 
materials aS marine in which no trace of marine organic remains are found. 


He made his last cruise in the Coast Survey steamer Hassler around 
the Horn from Boston to San Francisco in 1872 shortly before his 
death. 

Oceanography is such an extensive field of research that few individ- 
uals have been able to finance their own investigations. Alexander 
Agassiz was one outstanding example; the Prince of Monaco was an- 
other. Agassiz’ early cruises were made from 1877 to 1880 in the 
United States Coast Survey steamer Blake. It was on the first of these, 


224 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


only 1 year after the return of the Challenger, that Agassiz, with his 
background of practical mining experience, first introduced wire rope 
for dredging. The tremendous advantages over hemp rope—greater 
tensile strength for a given diameter, ease of handling, and ease of 
storage—are, of course, obvious, and its value for use at sea was 
quickly demonstrated. Nevertheless, considerable time elapsed before 
it was generally adopted in Europe. To Lieutenant Commander 
Sigsbee (1880), the man who first successfully proved the entire prac- 
ticability of sounding with piano wire by a modification of Lord Kel- 
vin’s machine, should go the credit for the proper installation of the 
winches and all the details for the practical handling of the dredging 
wire aboard the Blake. Sigsbee, it will be remembered, later was in 
command of the U. S. S. Maine when she blew up in Havana Harbor. 

The Blake worked off the east coast of the United States, in the 
Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean, in shallow water and deep, 
and these cruises marked the most serious attempt in the United 
States, up to that time, to solve oceanographic problems. They were 
but the forerunners of Agassiz’ many expeditions, as he remained 
active up to the time of his death in 1910. He chartered many ves- 
sels privately, and even when using the Albatross, belonging to the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries, he bore a large part of the ex- 
pense of operation. His voyages took him into the Pacific and 
Indian Oceans as well as into the Atlantic and throughout the West 
Indies. Although biology was his chosen field, he took a lively 
interest in the coral-reef problem and probably investigated more 
reefs than has any geologist. He added hundreds of deep-water 
soundings to the charts, and in certain parts of the Pacific they 
remain to this day the only ones that have been taken. It does not 
often happen that a single individual is able to further the develop- 
ment of his particular field to such an extent or to exert so much 
influence on it. 

The Prince of Monaco became interested in oceanography as early 
as 1885 and used his own private fortune to finance his researches. 
He successively equipped several yachts for this type of work, fre- 
quently commanding them himself, and built a laboratory and mu- 
seum at Monaco where the results of his investigations could be 
worked up and published. A long series of important reports and 
monographs have come from his institution, and oceanography has 
been greatly advanced by the efforts of this one man, particularly in 
the field of biology. kK 

Nansen began his career as an oceanographer by planning and 
successfully carrying out one of the most remarkable voyages that 
has ever been undertaken. His idea was to freeze a vessel in the 
ice and drift across the Polar Sea, possibly reaching the Pole itself. 


OCEANOGRAPHY—STETSON 225 


He was confident from the slight evidence available about the cur- 
rents that this could be accomplished, although many predicted that 
he would never return. Fram was a heavily constructed, wooden 
vessel and of such design that when squeezed in the ice she would 
tend to lift and not have to take the full crushing force of the shifting 
floes, which no ship has ever been able to withstand. She was frozen 
in off the New Siberian Islands in 1893 and emerged from the ice 3 
years later off Spitzbergen. The Pole was missed by less than 5°, but 
many valuable hydrographic data were obtained through holes cut 
in the ice during the drift across the then unknown Arctic Basin, 
and the first bottom samples were secured. Fram, after several sub- 
sequent trips, is now preserved as a national monument at Oslo, like 
Nelson’s flagship Victory at Portsmouth, England, and the Constitu- 
tion in the United States, an honor which but few of the vessels 
that have made history have attained. 


PROGRESS IN SUBMARINE GEOLOGY UP TO 1900 


GENERAL STATEMENT 


The turn of the century roughly divides the older from the modern 
phases of the science as a whole; consequently it is pertinent to give 
a brief summary of progress up to this point, before the advent of 
various new techniques which have put submarine geology on a par 
with the other subdivisions of oceanography. 


MURRAY’S CLASSIFICATION OF SEDIMENTS 


Up to this time most geologists had taken little interest in ocean- 
ography. They accepted Murray’s broad and rather inclusive classi- 
fication (Challenger Expedition, 1891) of marine sediments without 
critical comment, as though sediments in the sea and sedimentary 
rocks on land were unrelated phenomena. The interest of the ocean- 
ographers, where sediments were concerned, largely centered in the 
oozes of the deep sea; and though plenty of shallow-water samples 
had been collected, nobody paid much attention to them. Murray’s 
classification became standard the world over, and for that reason it 
will be restated here. 

He lumped all marine sediments in two main categories—terrigenous 
and pelagic. The former group includes all sediments consisting of 
waste derived from the land. Once outside the zone of littoral and 
shallow-water deposits, which are supposed to cease at 100 fathoms, 
the terrigenous sediments covering the continental slopes and parts 
of the ocean basins nearest the land are pigeon-holed in five divisions. 
Blue mud is characteristically found in the neighborhood of conti- 
nental land masses. Green mud is a variety containing glauconite 


226 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


and, according to Murray’s description (1912, p. 162), usually oc- 
curs “off high and bold coasts where currents from different sources 
alternate with the season, as off fhe Cape of Good Hope, off the east 
coast of Australia, off Japan, and off the Atlantic coasts of the 
United States.” It may grade into greensands. Red mud is still 
another variety “found in the Yellow Sea and off the coast of Brazil, 
where the great rivers bring down a large amount of ochreous mat- 
ter” * * * (1912, p. 162). Volcanic mud and coral mud are 
self-explanatory. 

Pelagic deposits begin to make their appearance in the ocean basins 
proper, at sufficient distances from the continental margins to prevent 
their being masked by detritus from the land. Of these, Globigerina 
ooze is the most widely distributed. Diatom ooze is characteristic of 
the colder waters, particularly the great circumpolar seas of the 
Southern Hemisphere; pteropod ooze is found in the warm waters 
of the Tropics; and radiolarian ooze occurs in the deeper parts of the 
Pacific and Indian Oceans. The last and most interesting of the 
deep-sea oozes is red clay, which floors vast areas of the Pacific far 
from the continents. It is supposed, according to Murray, to be a 
hydrated silicate of alumina derived from the disintergration of 
pumice and volcanic ash. Its rate of deposition is extremely slow, 
and consequently it is found only in the more remote parts of the 
ocean where the deposition of other debris and planktonic material 
is practically zero. 

Such, in general, is the horizontal distribution of the various types 
of marine sediments as determined from the Challenger’s data. Sub- 
sequent expeditions merely defined the areas more exactly. It was 
worked out, in a sense, merely as a byproduct of sounding. The 
samples, as we have seen, consisted of small plugs of mud brought up 
sticking in the end of the sounding tube, and they were so short that 
to all intents and purposes they were surface samples. During this 
period no one seems to have made any serious attempt to secure cores. 


IMPROVEMENTS IN SOUNDING TECHNIQUE 


The gear for deep-water sounding had been greatly improved as 
time went on, and with this development in technique came a cor- 
responding increase in our knowledge of the true configuration of the 
ocean basins. When deep soundings were first undertaken, an at- 
tempt was made to haul up the whole sounding lead. Consequently 
a heavy line was necessary and, when any considerable length was out, 
its weight bore so close a ratio to that of the sinker that in deep water 
it was impossible to tell when bottom had been reached. Further- 
more, the line kept running out endlessly of its own momentum even 
after the sinker had touched. On the early charts, for instance, some 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 207 


fantastic figures appear for mid-Atlantic soundings which can be at- 
tributed to this cause. 

The first attempts that can claim even approximate accuracy at 
depths exceeding 1,000-1,500 fathoms were made in the United States 
Navy by using a light line and a heavy weight. It was easy to tell 
when bottom had been reached by the sharp check in the rate at which 
the line ran out. The line was then cut, and no attempt was made to 
retrieve it or the sinker. The depth was ascertained by the simple 
method of measuring the remainder. The next important advance, 
made by a midshipman named Brooke, eliminated the obvious draw- 
backs of the former method. Still using a light line, the weight—a 
cannon ball with a hole through it—was released when it landed on 
bottom, and the sounding tube—a metal cylinder which passed 
through the ball—alone was hauled to the surface. Simple as this 
seems from the vantage point of today, this scheme of detaching the 
weight made the difference between accurate and inaccurate sound- 
ings in deep water. Piano wire soon replaced hemp, again with an 
increase in the accuracy of the results and a great reduction in the 
time required for sounding, as the frictional effect of the water on 
rope was thereby eliminated. The machines for handling the wire 
have been greatly improved since Sir William-Thomson’s first at- 
tempt, so that it became possible to take a sounding in a small frac- 
tion of the time formerly required. This method remained in gen- 
eral use until the perfection of echo sounding within the last decade. 
In the literature perhaps too much stress has been laid on the sound- 
ings made by various oceanographic expeditions. An enormous 
amount has been done in deep water by government vessels, and, of 
course, all near-shore and shallow-water surveying is a government 
undertaking. Nor should the cable ships be forgotten. They, like- 
wise, have played an important part in charting the oceans—a fact 
not generally appreciated—for it was the need for a better knowledge 
of the ocean bottoms in connection with laying cables that first stimu- 
lated systematic deep-water sounding. 


RISE OF MODERN TRENDS 


By 1900 the broad configuration of the ocean basins had been mapped 
and all the major deeps had been discovered and charted. This, plus 
a very general knowledge of the distribution of the sediments, particu- 
larly the pelagic oozes, comprised the chief contributions to geology 
before the advent of what we shall call the modern period. The other 
sciences, especially biology, had advanced much farther in the same in- 
terval. This lag is largely due to the fact that few geologists paid any 
attention to the sea, except around its margins. They seemed to regard 
oceanography as lying outside the boundaries of their particular do- 


228 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


main and having little to offer. Men whose chief interest lay along 
other lines were mainly responsible for what geological information 
there was. 

Up to this point the study of oceanography had proceeded more or 

less along the same lines which the Challenger expedition had laid 
down. The same general problems were attacked in the same general 
way and from the same point of view. The biological sciences, particu- 
larly systematic zoology, had long been the mainspring which moti- 
vated oceanography as a whole, but even here diminishing returns were 
beginning to be felt toward the end of the century, as each subsequent 
expedition merely added data which tended to confirm what was al- 
ready known. “And”,as Dr. H. B. Bigelow (1931, pp. 8-9) says: 
a period of general oceanographic stagnation might then have succeeded to the 
preceding peak of activity (this did, in fact, happen in America), had there not 
arisen new schools, centering their attention on the biologic economy of the in- 
habitants of the ocean as related to their physical-chemical environment, on 
mathematical analysis of the internal dynamics of the sea water, and on the 
geologic bearing of submarine topography and sedimentation, rather than on 
areal surveys of one or another feature of the sea. 

This conscious alteration of viewpoint, from the descriptive to the analytic, 
is one of two chief factors that gives to oceanography its present tone; the other 


is the growth of an economic demand that oceanography afford practical as- 
sistance to the sea fisheries. 


In Europe the Conseil International pour l’Exploration de la Mer 
was formed as a cooperative effort to handle this latter problem of such 
vital importance to the nations engaged in the North Sea and neighbor- 
ing fisheries, and attention was perforce directed to the shallower 
waters. Interest in the mathematical study of the dynamics of the cir- 
culation of the sea centered in the Scandinavian countries. This school 
developed rapidly, until today perhaps more attention is focused on 
physical and dynamical oceanography than on any other single sub- 
division of the science. 

Lest it be thought that too much space has been devoted up to this 
point to nongeological matters, it is once again pointed out that ocean- 
ography is, of necessity, a cooperative affair, and not to consider the 
development of the science as a whole is to lose perspective. Interest 
and impetus generated in one field may be used to advantage in another. 
Indeed, if this were not the case, submarine geology in its present state 
would not exist. Although the recent advances in surveying methods, 
in the application of geology techniques, and in sedimentation and 
stratigraphy have been marked, and in some cases spectacular, the 
geologist must remember that the main emphasis in oceanographic 
research is still on physics and the internal dynamics of sea water and 
on biology. 


OCEANOGRAPHY—STETSON 229 
RECENT ADVANCES IN SUBMARINE GEOLOGY 


INTRODUCTION 


The student of submarine geology, except in the field of sedimenta- 
tion, tries to attain the same objectives that are pursued ashore. 
The difficulties arise in adapting the various land techniques to 
marine conditions, and in handling the necessary gear on shipboard. 
Whatever the objective, it is subject to the limitations that a ship 
imposes, and the first thing which an oceanographer must realize, no 
matter what his field of endeavor, is that it is impossible to work 
with the same precision that is attainable ashore. This is a perfectly 
valid objection, but, if it were heeded, no oceanographic work of any 
kind would ever be undertaken. 


MODERN MARINE SURVEYING 


The prime requisite for most geological undertakings is a good 
‘map; therefore, let us first take up modern developments in chart- 
ing the ocean bottom. As we have seen, until comparatively re- 
cently deep-water soundings were taken with small-diameter wire 
and a sinker, and, although the machines for handling the wire had 
been improved to a point where the operation was vastly less time- 
consuming than during the early period when hemp was used, never- 
theless, accurate soundings could be obtained only during good 
weather, and in any event the ship had to be stopped. Modern echo 
sounding has come into general use only since World War I. 
Although prior to this date attempts had been made to locate ice- 
bergs by this method, its value in the detection of submarines led 
to more intensive experiments. The term “echo sounding” is practi- 
cally self-explanatory. The recording instrument measures the travel 
time of the sound wave through the water from the ship to the 
bottom and back again, translated into terms of distance. As the 
velocity of sound through water varies somewhat with the density, 
it is necessary to make temperature and salinity observations in the 
different water masses for accurate soundings. Many types of in- 
struments have been developed, and it is not necessary to go into the 
details of their construction here. With the earlier models it was 
necessary to read off each individual sounding, but recently they 
have been made self-recording. The tremendous advantages of this 
machine are that the surveying vessel can sound continuously while 
steaming at full speed, accurately, and in comparative independence 
of the weather. To quote Capt. G. T. Rude (Geophysical Explora- 
tion of the Ocean Bottom, 1937, pp. 10-11) : 
* * * in 15 working days in the month of July 19387, the party on the Coast 


and Geodetic Survey Ship Lydonia recorded 12,489 soundings of the continental 
566766—44—_16 


230 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


slope and covered an area of 1764 square statute miles extending more than 150 
miles offshore, all of which was precisely controlled by radio acoustic ranging 
and taut wire traverses tied in to the shore triangulation net on North American 
1927-datum. 

As a contrast, he cites the 504 deep-sea soundings made by the 
Challenger and the then remarkable number of 3,195 made between 
1874 and 1879 by the Blake. Similar work is constantly being carried 
out on the Pacific coast and in the Gulf of Mexico as well as on the 
Atlantic. 

Almost as important as the development of the fathometer is the 
new method of determining positions accurately at long distances 
from shore (Geophysical Exploration of the Ocean Bottom, 1937, 
pp. 9-25). Formerly only the inshore waters within sight of the 
triangulation stations were accurately surveyed. Once out of sight 
of these fixed marks the position of the surveying ship becomes more 
and more doubtful as she proceeds offshore, until at some distance 
from land the positions of individual soundings on the older charts 
are not much more accurate than an ordinary sextant fix. As an 
illustration, on all charts prior to 1938 the steep, outer part of the 
Hudson Gorge makes a pronounced S-curve. The recent surveys have 
shown that this S-curve is fictitious, and that the head of the Hudson 
Gorge had been connected with the mouth of a smaller neighbor, 
and its own mouth had been missed entirely. When vessels were 
slow a very generalized representation of the continental shelf and 
slope was considered sufficient for all practical navigational purposes; 
but now, when many liners have cruising speeds of over 20 and even 
30 knots and all are equipped with echo-sounding apparatus, the 
Survey decided that more accurate detail of the offshore bottoms 
would be of considerable assistance to shipping. In thick weather a 
topographic profile could be constructed by taking continuous sound- 
ings and the ship located by comparison with the topography on the 
chart. This decision on the part of the Survey was more far-reaching 
than was at first realized, for in carrying out this work the true 
configurations of the now famous submarine canyons were revealed 
for the first time, far greater numbers of them were discovered 
than had hitherto been dreamed of, and a major geological discussion 
was precipitated which is still far from settled. 

To solve this difficulty of accurate positions offshore, the United 
States Coast and Geodetic Survey developed a method which they 
call radio-acoustic ranging (Geophysical Exploration of the Ocean 
Bottom, 1937, pp. 9-25). Briefly, the system is this: Two or more 
radio stations are equipped with hydrophones, and their positions 
are determined with reference to the triangulation on shore. The 
surveying vessel, out of sight of land, steams along her course, 
sounding continuously with her fathometer. When a position is 


OCEANOGRAPHY—STETSON zal 


necessary, a small bomb loaded with TNT is dropped overboard, and 
the time of the explosion is recorded on a tape. The sound waves, 
traveling through the water, are picked up by the shore stations and 
radioed back to the ship, and the time of reception is recorded on 
the same tape. The travel times of the sound waves, after the nec- 
essary corrections have been applied, give the distance of the ship 
from each hydrophone. As the surveying vessel works farther and 
farther offshore it eventually becomes necessary to move the hydro- 
phones farther seaward as well. Originally they were operated from 
anchored vessels, but recently buoys, equipped with radio apparatus, 
have taken their place. Both, of course, are tied in with the shore 
triangulation stations. 

One more device is used in offshore surveying—the taut-wire ap- 
paratus which was originally developed by the British. It consists 
of a large drum of fine wire which is used as a steel tape in lengths 
of over 140 miles. One end is anchored to the bottom, and, as the 
ship proceeds on her course, the wire is paid out over a sheave which 
registers the distance run. When a large area is surveyed, this 
method is used to measure the distances between anchored buoys 
over the shoreward portions of the regions to be covered, as it can 
be employed successfully only in relatively shallow water. As the 
work progresses offshore it is replaced by radio-acoustic ranging. 

All the maritime nations have charted their own coastal waters, 
and various naval vessels have done valuable work in the deeper ocean 
basins. The recently published bathymetric charts of the East In- 
dian seas from soundings taken by the Snellius expedition are out- 
standing examples (1934; 1935). Not only do they clearly depict the 
morphology of the basins, fore deeps, and fault scarps, but the to- 
pography is sufficiently detailed to serve as the basis for general 
geological discussion by Dr. Ph. H. Kuenen of such fundamental 
problems as the theories concerning the structure and origin of island 
ares and fore deeps, so well exemplified in this interesting region. 

Surveying on an equally large scale has been carried out in the 
South Atlantic by the Meteor. As a result, Stock and Wiist have 
been able to draw a greatly improved bathymetric chart of that 
ocean (Meteor Expedition, 1935-39). The true configuration of the 
southern extension of the mid-Atlantic ridge has been depicted for the 
first time, as well as the longitudinal basins on either side of it which 
are separated from each other by smaller transverse ridges. 

The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey deserves great credit 
and the gratitude of geologists everywhere for the introduction of 
precise methods into offshore surveying. The production of topo- 
graphic maps such as the series for the Atlantic continental shelf and 
slopes, drawn from their soundings by A. C. Veatch and P. A. Smith 


232 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


(1939), under a grant from the Penrose Bequest of the Geological 
Society of America, the detailed work in some of the California sub- 
marine canyons both by the Survey and by the Scripps Institution, and 
the chart of the submarine contours around Bogoslof Island (Smith, 
1937) are but forerunners of a type of work which we may expect 
in the future to become universal. 


TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM 


Magnetic surveys at sea, according to Dr. J. A. Fleming (Vaughan 
et al., 1937, pp. 50-56), were first attempted over 200 years ago on 
Halley’s expedition. From that time until the construction in 1908 
of a nonmagnetic ship by the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism 
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, other surveys of varying 
accuracy were made, depending on the instruments used and the 
amount of magnetic disturbance set up by the hulls of the different 
vessels. The commissioning of the Carnegie, however, marks the 
awakening of a full appreciation of the value of magnetic measure- 
ments at sea and a concerted effort to make them as accurate as possible 
by the optimum equipment and by long cruises devoted exclusively to 
this aim. Seven cruises totaling nearly 300,000 miles were made 
before this ship was destroyed by fire in 1929. 

Any investigation that holds the possibility of making more com- 
plete our knowledge of the earth’s structure is worth pursuing for 
its own sake; furthermore, data accumulated in this field can also 
be used to advantage in other branches of geophysics, particularly 
gravimetric studies. This being the case, the need for additional 
observations at sea are self-eyident, considering the large portion of 
the earth’s crust that is covered with water, and entirely aside from 
the practical values of these studies as an aid to navigation at sea 
and in the air. 

Fleming (Vaughan et al., 1937, p. 53) lists a few theoretical investi- 
gations which should be continued in the further survey of the oceans: 
Determination of secular-variation of progressive changes of the Earth’s mag- 
netie field involving particularly their accelerations * * *. The study of 
regions of local disturbance and particularly of those indicated * * * over 


“deep-sea” areas * * *, The determination of additional distribution-data 
in a few large areas not already covered. 


Simultaneously with these investigations work should be continued 
in the field of terrestrial electricity along the following lines: 


Additional determinations to establish changes in the values of the atmos- 
pheric-electric elements with geographie position. * * * More and widely 
distributed determinations of the diurnal variations in atmospheric elec- 
tricity * * *. Determinations and investigations in the field of earth-cur- 
rents—a field not yet touched at sea. 


Although the Carnegie Institution did not build another ship, the 
British Admiralty, in view of the importance of these investigations, 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON Waa 


decided to continue them and ordered the construction of another 
nonmagnetic vessel, the Research, to be placed in commission with 
equipment similar to that formerly used on the Carnegie. 


GRAVIMETRIC MEASUREMENTS 


Attempts to measure gravity at sea by static methods have never 
proved particularly accurate, although many different instruments of 
this type have been devised. The pendulum has always been the 
standard instrument on land; but, because the difficulties of using it 
on board surface ships seemed insurmountable, it was disregarded by 
the earlier workers. In 1923 the Gravity Survey of Holland began to 
consider the possibilities of using a submarine for this work, and, after 
preliminary tests, the first really accurate measurements were made, on 
board a vessel of this type, by Dr. F. A. Vening Meinesz, on a cruise 
to the Dutch East Indies. Two pendulums were employed instead of 
one to eliminate the effects of horizontal acceleration. So successful 
was this cruise that, following the lead of the Dutch, similar expedi- 
tions were sent out by other countries. Since 1928 the United States 
Navy on three separate occasions, in cooperation with Princeton Uni- 
versity, has dispatched a submarine for surveys in the West Indies, 
and the French, Italians, Russians, and Japanese one or more each to 
the. Mediterranean, Black Sea, and the Far East. The Netherlands, 
in the meantime, has completed seven additional surveys and is about 
to send out an eighth. The original apparatus has, of course, been 
considerably modified and refined since the first model was constructed, 
but the Meinesz method has been followed in all this work. 

As in the case of terrestrial magnetism, not only is it desirable to 
extend the measurement of gravity to the oceans so that the areal sur- 
vey of the earth may be as extensive as possible, but in this particular 
case fundamental data can be gathered at sea that cannot be obtained 
on land. The discovery of the large negative anomalies in the vicinity 
of island arcs and fore deeps has greatly influenced our ideas on the 
processes involved in mountain building and gives another clue as to 
what may have happened in depth during deformation. Solving the 
problem of measuring gravity at sea may be ranked as one of the major 
contributions of geophysics to geology in recent years (Vening 
Meinesz, 1930; 1934). 


SEISMIC TECHNIQUE 


The importance of seismic techniques as an aid to structural geology 
has long been recognized, but the practical difficulties which stood in 
the way of the adaptation of this well-known procedure to marine 
conditions long delayed its use at sea. It is the most recent of the three 
geophysical methods to be applied to oceanic problems. The first 


934 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


experiments were carried out in the shallow water of our east coast 
continental shelf by Dr. Maurice Ewing (1937) 5 yearsago. The tech- 
nique for shallow water can be regarded as nearly perfected, while 
that for deep water is still in the experimental stage. A new develop- 
ment in the technique for deep-water work is the use of floats filled 
with an oil of low density for bringing the instruments to the surface, 
thereby dispensing with a long wire rope which has many disadvan- 
tages. The first plans, as described by Ewing (1938), have since been 
greatly modified, though the principle remains the same. 

A profile consisting of four sea stations has been run from Cape 
Henry, Va., across the shelf to the continental margin, and while, of 
course, one profile is far from being a complete picture, it has 
demonstrated that the method is a usable one and that a new tool 
has been acquired. A thickness of the order of 12,000 feet of un- 
consolidated and semiconsolidated sediments is found at the conti- 
nental margin over rocks which registered much higher velocities. 
This presumably represents the thickened seaward extension of the 
Coastal Plane monocline lying above the relatively flat basement 
complex, which itself has a seaward dip. The same relationships 
which have been observed in the subaerial portion of the Coastal 
Plain are apparently continued beneath the sea. The east coast shelf, 
with its relatively simple structure and the presence of numerous 
deep artesian wells close to the shore line, is a particularly favorable 
place for the development of this new technique. 

Recently Drs. E. C. Bullard and T. F. Gaskell have used the same 
method in the approaches to the English Channel out to a point 175 
miles west-southwest of the Lizard. At the station nearest shore it 
is thought that an extension of the Triassic is picked up. Farther 
out unconsolidated sediments were encountered over an igneous 
basement, but they are relatively thin in comparison with the same 
type of deposit found off the east coast of the United States. 

It is at present impossible to predict how far offshore the work 
can be carried and still retain its significance from a structural point 
of view, because with increasing distance from the known strati- 
graphic column, which must be constantly used as a check, the results 
are more uncertain. This will be even more of a limiting factor in 
regions where the structure is complicated. Deep water enormously 
increased the difficulties. This of course is true of any operation 
carried out on shipboard. However, even though it will never be 
possible to work at sea with the same precision that can be attained 
ashore, or to make as close a network of stations, or get in as many 
shot points, this should be no deterrent to future activity in this partic- 
ular field, for the same criticism can be leveled at any kind of 
oceanographic endeavor. 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 235 


BOTTOM SAMPLING 


In the beginning, as we have seen, sampling was merely an adjunct 
of sounding. A sample was taken merely to inform the navigator, 
by notations placed on the printed chart, over what general type of 
bottom he was sailing. For this purpose a small bit of sediment 
plugged in the sounding tube or a smear stuck to the grease on the 
end of the lead was sufficient. Later, scraper dredges were de- 
veloped by the biologists, and various kinds of scoops and bucket 
dredges, capable of taking measured portions of the bottom, were 
designed for ecological studies. However, these men were mainly 
interested in obtaining samples for the animals which they contained, 
and the sediment itself was broadly classified as sand or mud and 
usually discarded. 

The coring tube can be considered as a sampler primarily for 
geological purposes. Until the invention of the Piggot gun, those 
used in anything but the shallowest water were merely weighted 
tubes, which penetrated the bottom by their own kinetic energy. 
They attained varying degrees of success, depending on their weight 
and the speed at which they could be dropped. Some had a thin, 
inner tube of glass or metal which could be slipped out, thus giving 
the core a permanent container. The length of such cores rarely 
exceeded 8 or 4 feet, though recently Dr. F. P. Shepard reported taking 
one of 11 feet. 

Coring has played a prominent part in the work of two recent 
expeditions; the Meteor in her traverses across the South Atlantic has 
taken numerous cores with a modified Ekman type of sampler, and 
an important series of papers on the sediments and their faunas by 
Pratje, Correns, and G. and W. Schott has resulted (Meteor Expedi- 
tion, 1935-39). Besides showing the areal distribution of the differ- 
ent types of material, the tube penetrated deeper layers in which evi- 
dence of climatic changes are recorded. The Snellius, in the Dutch 
East Indies, also took many cores, particularly in and around the 
deeps and on the slopes of submarine volcanoes. These have been 
discussed by Kuenen (Snellius Expedition, 1935) in connection with 
the question of the sliding of sediment down the sides of the deeps as 
a process which might tend eventually to fill up these downwarps, 
and also with regard to the structures which submarine landslides 
might be expected to produce. 

The Piggot gun has been fully described by its inventor (Piggot, 
1936), and the details of its construction need not be discussed here. 
Support for the original design and experimentation was furnished by 
a grant from the Penrose Bequest of the Geological Society of Amer- 
ica. The driving force for the tube, or bit, is produced by a powder 
charge, contained in a watertight cartridge, which is detonated when 


236 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the instrument hits the bottom. More uniform performance has been 
secured with this coring tube in deep water than with any other yet 
devised, and cores up to 10 feet in length are frequently taken, al- 
though occasionally greater lengths have been attained by tubes 
which are dropped at high velocity. The extra 6 or 7 feet of core 
obtained by these newer instruments may not seem to be of much 
significance as compared to the probable total thickness of the de- 
posit, but it must be remembered that the rate of deposition de- 
creases as one goes beyond the continental slopes into the ocean basins. 
Accordingly, 10 feet of sediment may represent a considerable inter- 
val of time. Indeed, in a series of cores taken by Piggott across the 
Atlantic basin, and worked up by the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, four warm and four cold alterations of climate are represented 
(Geophysical Exploration, 1937, Bradley et al., pp. 41-46). 

Using this same instrument, numerous cores have been taken by the 
Atlantis in and around the east coast submarine canyons, along the 
continental slope, and for some distance out into the Atlantic basin. 
In these, one or more climatic cycles are usually found. The pres- 
ent-day warm-water fauna from the tops of the cores occurs in a 
green silt which is being deposited under modern marine conditions. 
The cold-water fauna from the bottom sections is found in a com- 
pact, varicolored clay. Such fine-grained, terrigenous material is not 
being deposited on the surface of the present-day bottom in this area, 
on the shelf, slope, or even in the westerly part of the Atlantic basin, 
as practically all river-borne sediment is now effectively trapped in 
the bays and estuaries which today border the entire eastern sea- 
board. The clay in question evidently dates from the last glacial 
stage of the Wisconsin when, because of the lowered sea level, the 
rivers were able to cross the shelf and dump their loads directly on 
the steep continental slope. 

The possibilities, therefore, of being able to trace the history of 
Pleistocene sedimentation in the Atlantic basin and on the continental 
slope by the continued use of the coring tube are very good. It is 
even possible that from this source some light may be thrown on the 
far from settled problem of the origin of submarine canyons. This 
investigation is already under way at the Woods Hole Oceanographic 
Institution, and similar work is in progress at the Scripps Institution 
of Oceanography at La Jolla. At the latter institution an extensive 
program for submarine geology is being carried out under the direc- 
tion of Dr. F. P. Shepard, which is, in part, financed by a grant from 
the Penrose Bequest of the Geological Society of America. 

Cores have one limitation which is only just beginning to be recog- 
nized. The deeper the tube penetrates the sediment the greater be- 
comes the friction on the inside walls of the tube. Dr. M. Juul 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 237 


Hvorslev, of the Harvard Engineering School, has recently com- 
pleted extensive sampling experiments for the Committee on Sam- 
pling and Testing, American Society of Civil Engineers, in varved 
clays with different types of coring tubes. He finds (personal 
communication) — 
that the layers in the upper parts of the cores are often subjected to an increase 
in thickness due to plastic flow of additional soil into the tube caused by the 
pressure of the cutting edge. With increasing depth of penetration, and thereby 
increasing friction between the sample and the tube, the general load on the soil 
becomes so great that it now becomes squeezed out from under the sampler and 
the thickness of any given layer is thereby reduced. Finally, at a certain critical 
depth, internal wall friction becomes so great that no more soil can enter, and 
the core and tube are driven as a solid pile, pushing a cone of sediment ahead 
of them. There is, therefore, for each particular type of sampler, and for each 
type of soil, a maximum length of sample that can be obtained in a single drive. 
When the soil consists of alternating layers of firm and soft material a further 
complication, originally observed by Pratje, arises in that the soft layers may 
be squeezed out partly or completely while the firm layers still enter the tube 
without any change in thickness. 
This behavior of the material introduces a serious factor of error into 
all attempts to determine rates of sedimentation from linear measure- 
ments. 

SHALLOW-WATER SEDIMENTS 


Like organisms, sediments are the resultants of the long sequence of 
factors to which they have been exposed: current action, wave-gener- 
ated and otherwise, distance from shore and depth of water, the type of 
material supplied and its availability, plus their combined effect in the 
past. These environmental forces have acted on the sediments at their 
source, during the period of transportation, and at their place of depo- 
sition. Many inferences have been drawn in regard to the conditions 
of marine deposition from the study of sedimentary rocks, but insofar 
as present-day marine sediments are concerned very few observational 
data have been accumulated. Of the sediments in the geologic column 
those laid down in the neritic zone bulk the largest, but our knowledge 
of them is still very elementary. The earlier oceanographers were, as 
we have seen, more interested in the deposits of the deep sea, and they 
added but little information concerning those sediments which to the 
geologist are the most important. Chiefly by increasing our knowl- 
edge of present-day marine sediments and the environments under 
which they are being deposited will we be able to reconstruct with any 
degree of certainty the conditions which governed the formation of 
ancient sediments. With this purpose in view, detailed regional stud- 
ies are now being carried out off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, by the 
Woods Hole and Scripps Institutions, based on traverses of closely 
spaced surface samples as well as long cores. In addition, some ap- 


238 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


proach has been made to an understanding of the factors controlling 
the transportation and deposition of sediments by means of traps 
placed on the bottom, although this work is still in its early stages. 

Additional regional studies have been carried out in the Baltic and 
neighboring waters by the Thalassological Institute at Helsinki and by 
the marine laboratory of the University of Kiel; these studies have 
added much to our knowledge of the conditions of sedimentation found 
in inland seas. Princeton University has sponsored expeditions to 
the Bahamas for the investigation of shallow-water, calcareous sedi- 
ments, a relatively unexplored field. It is hoped that data obtained 
from studies of this type, to cite but a few examples, will help solve 
some of the problems of the stratigrapher and lead to a better interpre- 
tation and understanding of the environments which produced the 
different sedimentary rocks. 


SUBMARINE CANYONS AND ROCK DREDGING 


Within the last few years the submarine-canyon problem has pro- 
voked so much discussion that the subject has become familiar to all 
geologists. Although their existence has been known since J. D. Dana’s 
day, they had attracted but little attention until the United States 
Coast and Geodetic Survey completed the first surveys of Georges 
Bank by radio-acoustic ranging. For the first time an adequate picture 
of their true configuration was available, and Dr. F. P. Shepard (1933; 
1934) was quick to grasp the significance of the new evidence. As 
more of these gorges were discovered, and particularly as the continen- 
tal slope between the major valleys was shown to be deeply scoured and 
channeled, geologists realized that they were faced with a problem, 
world-wide in its scope, for which they had no ready explanation. The 
multiplicity of the theories that have been put forward is an index 
of the general perplexity. Some consider that the erosion is due to 
stream cutting and would alter the relationships of land and sea to a 
hitherto undreamt of extent (Veatch and Smith, 1939) ; another con- 
ceives of a great lowering of sea level by postulating a vastly thickened 
and extended Pleistocene ice cap (Shepard, 1936) ; still others consider 
that the erosion took place beneath the sea. One hypothesis calls 
for turbidity currents made heavy by their load of mud acquired from 
the Continental Shelf by wave action during the lowered sea level of 
the Pleistocene. These currents ran down the slope and scoured it as 
they sought the depths of the ocean, as well as “triggering off” mud 
slides by the friction of their passage (Daly, 1936). The latest hy- 
pothesis in the case of the east coast of the United States invokes 
artesian springs flowing out from the Coastal Plain formations along 
the continental slope, possibly at a time when this wedge of sediments 
had a greater westward extent than it has today, and by their long- 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 239 


continued action producing the present topography largely by solution. 
Before introducing his new theory, Johnson (1939) gives an excellent 
account of the whole canyon problem to date.’ 

Whatever their origin, these submerged canyons offer the only 
available opportunities for getting at the older formations beneath 
the mantle of Recent veneer, for in places their walls stand as cliffs, 
steeper than the angle of repose of unconsolidated sediment. The 
fossiliferous fragments broken from the outcropping ledges indicate 
that these valleys are comparatively young. This adds to the com- 
plexity of the problem, because we cannot retreat into the security 
of the distant past when called upon for an explanation of their 
origin. Heavy iron scraper dredges have been successfully employed, 
in comparatively deep water, both by Woods Hole and Scripps, off 
the east and west coasts, for obtaining samples from these outcrops. 
Where the beds are nearly horizontal it is even possible to work out 
roughly the stratigraphic succession. This serves the double pur- 
pose of not only giving some information as to the rocks constituting 
the continental shelves but also of fixing at least the maximum age 
of the canyons. On the east coast the formations are all sedimentary, 
ranging from Upper Cretaceous through the late Plioecne. In texture 
the different beds vary from indurated sandstones to friable green- 
sands and compacted silts and clays (Stetson et al., 1936). Cores 
taken from the bottom of the canyons show a clay, with Arctic For- 
aminifera, presumably deposited during the last stage of the Wis- 
consin. The time of canyon excavation can thus be bracketed with 
fair exactness, and further work will doubtless narrow this span. 
Mollusks and echinoderms have proved useful in some cases as guide 
fossils, but Foraminifera have been by far the most valuable. Al- 
though the shelf is the submerged extension of the Coastal Plain, the 
fauna of the sediments at the continental margin differs from that 
of the emerged portion, and the formations evidently belong to differ- 
ent facies. In some cases there is a curious parallelism with the 
warm-water fauna of the Mississippi Embayment. The walls of 
the west coast canyons likewise consist, for the most part, of sedi- 
mentary formations, the youngest of which are Pliocene, although in 
the upper part of Monterey Canyon Shepard has reported granite. 
Any theory which is put forward to explain the much-disputed ques- 
tion of origin of these extraordinary topographic features must take 
into account the data which this dredging has afforded, namely, their 
age and the type of rock into which they are cut. Similar work in 
the canyons of other continents is much to be desired, in order that 


2 Since the manuscript has been completed yet another theory has been added to the list. 
Bucher (1940) considers that the erosive effect of tsunamis spending their energy against 
the continental slope may be the most important single factor in producing this maturely 
dissected submarine topography. 


240 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


all possible information may be brought to bear on this perplexing 
and still unsolved problem. 


PRESENT STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF 
SUBMARINE GEOLOGY 


As a result of a newly awakened interest, stimplated by the intro- 
duction of new techniques, the geological branch of the science is, 
at present, in a position to make a rapid advance. The foreword to 
the reports of the Snellius Expedition (1938, p. vii) reflects this 
change of attitude which has taken place both here and abroad. 

While in the Siboga expedition of 1900, biology stood in the foreground, physical 
oceanography came only in second place and geology was not included in the 


program at all; in the Snellius expedition the parts were reversed and more- 
over a prominent place was given to geology. 


The application of the geophysical methods has placed within our 
grasp the means of dispelling much of our ignorance concerning the 
suboceanic lithosphere, a subject of primary importance to our think- 
ing concerning the structure of the earth. The procedure for meas- 
uring terrestrial magnetism and gravity can be regarded as perfected, 
while that for securing seismological data is rapidly approaching that 
stage. 

The recent advances in offshore surveying methods have so far been 
applied only to charting comparatively small areas of the ocean floor, 
but these preliminary results, if they may be so called, have been sufhi- 
ciently startling to unsettle, in many minds, deep-rooted ideas con- 
cerning the relative stability of land and sea, and possibly even the 
permanency of the ocean basins. For others they have stimulated 
thought concerning submarine currents and rivers of liquid mud of 
a type which had never before been considered among the processes 
of erosion. The study of submarine morphology has thus taken on a 
new significance. 

In the field of sedimentation the emphasis is shifting from a purely 
areal study of a region to investigations of the sediments in relation to 
the marine environments which have produced them. The forces 
governing transportation and deposition are all too imperfectly known, 
and a clear understanding of conditions of sedimentation in the sea 
today will go far toward helping the stratigrapher in the interpreta- 
tion of sedimentary rocks on land. Modern methods of mechanical 
analysis, largely developed in connection with studies in soil mechanics 
and foundation engineering, and the statistical treatment of data have 
been of great assistance in this work. The ability to take long cores 
is playing an increasingly important part in the study of sediments, 
and it is possible in many instances to penetrate the mantle of present- 
day deposition and reach the older formations. It is hoped that in 
this way at least something of the Pleistocene history of the ocean 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 241 


basins may be unraveled. When long cores have been obtained from 
the red clay of the Pacific, where the rate of deposition is extremely 
slow, it is expected that valuable data will be obtained on the rate of 
decay of radioactive minerals, which are exceedingly abundant in these 
clays. 

Little enough is known of the clastic sediments—black shales, for 
instance—but even less is known about the origin of limestone and its 
corollary, dolomite. Chemistry in relation to marine sediments, both 
organic and inorganic, and its connection with the processes of di- 
agenesis is a field which has scarcely been scratched. Even the com- 
position of the water contained in the bottom sediments and the part 
it plays is an unknown quantity. Along these lines the possibilities 
for future development are practically limitless. 

No longer does oceanography have to depend on the outfitting of 
special expeditions for its continued advancement. As a science it has 
become firmly established, and the study of the sea in all its phases is 
now carried out both here and abroad. Not only are numerous labora- 
tories devoted exclusively to this purpose, but many government de- 
partments have also made it an integral part of their programs. Using 
this country as an illustration, the Coast and Geodetic Survey has 
engaged in charting operations which have proved particularly signifi- 
cant in the field of submarine morphology. The Navy has furnished 
submarines on several occasions for the measurement of gravity at 
sea, and the Hydrographic Office is constantly accumulating and pub- 
lishing deep-sea soundings. The Coast Guard has incorporated the 
study of the internal dynamics of sea water as part of its work on the 
ice patrol off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The Bureau of Fish- 
eries investigates for the most part ecologic problems which concern 
the various inhabitants of the ocean but has also taken much hydro- 
graphic data. Similar work is being carried out by the governments 
of all the important maritime nations. 

If the greater part of the initiative and impetus for the development 
of the biological and physical oceanography has been furnished by 
European countries, America may lay claim to this role in the field 
of submarine geology. The support which has been, and continues to 
be, furnished by institutions, learned societies, and government 
agencies in this country in the form of money, ships, and equipment 
is a measure of the importance of the problems and of the success which 
has been achieved. However, after the original impetus has been 
given, international cooperation is essential if the study is to reach its 
fullest development. There is every indication that such will continue. 

To attempt a list of institutions and bureaus engaged in oceano- 
graphic work or to make a complete catalog of present activity in 
submarine geology is not the purpose of this chapter. The student 


242 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


desiring such information should turn to a recent publication of the 
National Academy of Sciences edited by Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan 
(1937) where these data have been fully compiled, and which also 
give a bibliography of the serials which are published by the various 
institutions. The bibliography appended here is only intended to give 
a person unacquainted with the subject a working knowledge of the 
literature and to provide a starting point. The purpose of a short 
sketch of this sort is to trace the rise and development of present-day 
trends and lines of endeavor in submarine geology and to present a 
summary of progress, as seen against the background of oceanography 
as a whole, so that the general perspective does not become distorted. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


AGASssiz, ALEXANDER. 
1888. Three cruises of the Blake. Mus. Comp. Zool., Bull., vols. 14 and 15. 
Aaassiz, Louts. 
1869. Report on deep sea dredgings during the cruise of the U. S. C. steamer 
Bibb. Mus. Comp. Zool., Bull., vol. 1, No. 13, pp. 368-369. 
BIcELow, H. B. 
1931. Oceanography. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. 
BucHer, W. H. 
1940. Submarine valleys and related geologic problems of the North At- 
lantic. Geol. Soc. Amer., Bull., vol. 51, pp. 489-512. 
BULLARD, BH. C., and GASKELL, T. F. 
1938. Seismic methods in submarine geology. Nature, vol. 142, pp. 916— 
917. 
Challenger EXPEDITION. 
Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H. M. S. Challenger, 
1873-1876. 
1885. Narrative of the cruise. 
1891. Deep sea deposits. 
Day, R. A. 
1936. Origin of submarine canyons. Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 31, pp. 401-420. 
DEUTSCHE SUDPOLAR-EXXPEDITION, 1901-1903. 
1905-1931. Vols. 1-20. Berlin. 
Discovery REPORTS. 
1929-date. Results of investigations made by the Discovery and the 
William Scoresby . .. Univ. Press, Cambridge. 
Ewine, Maurice, Craky, A. P., and RUTHERFORD, H. M. 
1937. Geophysical investigations in the emerged and submerged Atlantic 
Coastal Plain. Geol. Soc. Amer., Bull., vol. 48, pp. 753-802. 
Ewine, Mavrice, and VINE, ALLYN. 
19388. Deep sea measurements without cables or wires. Trans. Amer. 
Geophys. Union, pt. 1, pp. 248-251. 
GEOPHYSICAL EXPLORATION OF THE OCHAN Borrtom. 
1937. Symposium arranged by the American Geophysical Union. Proc. 
Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. 79, No. 1, pp. 1-166. 
HERDMAN, W. 
1923. Founders of oceanography. Longmans, Green, New York. 


OCEANOGRAPH Y—STETSON 243 


JOHNSON, DOUGLAS. 


1939. 


Origin of submarine canyons. Columbia Univ. Press, New York. 


JOHNSTONE, J. 
1928. An introduction to oceanography. Univ. Press, Liverpool. 
KRUMMEL, O. 


1907. 
1911. 


Handbuch der Ozeanographie, Bd. 1. Engelhorn, Stuttgart. 
Idem, Bd. 2. 


Marmer, H. A. 


1926. 


The tide. D. Appleton and Co., New York. 


Meteor EXPEDITION. 
1982-date. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der deutschen Atlantischen Ex- 


MoNnAco., 


ped. auf dem... Meteor, 1925-1927. 


1889-date. Results des campagnes scientifiques. 

1904-date. Bulletin Inst. Oceanographie. 

1909-date. Annales, Inst. Oceanographie. 
Murray, J., and Hvort, J. 


1912. 


The depths of the ocean. Macmillan and Co., London. 


NANSEN, FRIDTJOF (editor). 
1900-1905. Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896. Scientific re- 


sults, vols. 1-6. 


NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, COMMITTEH ON PHYSICS OF THE EARTH. 


1932. Physics of the earth. Vol. 5, Oceanography. Nat. Res. Counc. 
Bull. 85. 
Piacot, C. S. 
1936. Apparatus to secure core samples from the ocean bottom. Geol. 
Soe. Amer., Bull., vol. 47, No. 5, pp. 675-684. 
ScuHort, G. 
1926. Geographie des Atlantischen Ozeans. Boysen, Hamburg. 
1935. Geographie des Indischen und Stillen Ozeans. Boysen, Hamburg. 


SHEPARD, F. P. 


1933. 


Submarine valleys. Geogr. Rev., vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 77-89. 


1934. Canyons off the New England coast. Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 27, pp. 


24-36. 


1936. The underlying causes of submarine canyons. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 


vol. 22, No. 8, pp. 496-502. 


Siboga-ExPEDITIE. 


1901-date. Results des Explorations . . . Leyden. 
Sicssex, C. D. 

1880. Deep sea sounding and dredging. U. S. Coast and Geod. Surv. 
SmiruH, P. A. 

1937. The submarine topography of Bogoslof. Geogr. Rev., vol. 27, No. 4, 


pp. 630-636. 


Snellius EXpepITION IN THE EASTERN Part OF THE NETHERLANDS Hast-INpIES 


1933. 
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1935. 


1938. 


1929-1930. 

Vol. 5, pt. 2, Geology of coral reefs. 

Vol. 2, Oceanographic results; pt. 2, Soundings and bathymetric 
charts. 

Vol. 5, Geological results; pt. 1, Geological interpretation of the 
bathymetric results. 

Vol. 1, Voyage. 


Stetson, H. C., STEPHENSON, W. L., BAsster, R. S., and CusHMAN, J. A. 


1936. 


The geology and paleontology of the Georges Bank canyons. Geol. 
Soc. Amer., Bull., vol. 47, pts. 1-4, pp. 339-440. 


244 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


THOMSON, C. WYVILLE. 
1873. The depths of the sea. An account of the dredging cruises of 
Porcupine and Lightning during the summers of 1868, 1869, and 
1870. Macmillan and Co., New York and London. 
1877. The voyage of the Challenger. Macmillan and Co., London. 
TrASK, PARKER D. (editor). 
1939. Recent marine sediments: A symposium. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., 
Tulsa. 
UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. 
1844-date. Reports of the Superintendent (now Director). 
VAUGHAN, T. WAYLAND, ET AL. 
1937. International aspects of oceanography. Nat. Acad. Sci., Washington. 
VEATCH, A. C., and SmiTH, P. A. 
1939. Atlantic submarine valleys of the United States and the Congo 
submarine valley. Geol. Soc. Amer., Spec. Pap. No. 7. 
VENING MEINESz, F. A. 
1930. Gravity expeditions at sea 1923-1930. Vol. 1, The expeditions, the 
computations and the results. 
VENING MEINEsz, F. A., UMBGROVE, J. H. F., and KUENEN, PH. H. 
1934. Gravity expeditions at sea 1923-1932. Vol. 2, Report of the gravity 
expedition in the Atlantic of 1932 and the interpretation of the 
results. 


THE OCEAN CURRENT CALLED “THE CHILD” 


By Etior G. MrEArs 
Stanford University, California 


(With 2 plates] 


Every year about Christmas time, a hot current swings inshore 
along southern Ecuador and northern Peru. Because this is the 
season of the Christ Child, the devout inhabitants of the region have 
named it “The Child” (El Nifio). Its location, and that of the 
great Humboldt (Peru) Current, are shown on the accompanying 
maps. 

Ordinarily the coasts of southern Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile 
are dry; they even lack sufficient quantities of drinking water. This 
aridity is due to the usual dominance the year round of the cool 
Humboldt Current. The Humboldt is cool because of the almost 
continuous upwelling near shore. The California Current is cool 
for the same reason in summer, the season when California is also 
dry. Except when a warm stream or wedge invades or pushes its 
waters away from the shore, the area affected by the Humboldt Cur- 
rent is arid throughout the year. 

To inhabitants of both land and sea, the unforeseen intrusion of hot 
sea water is a phenomenon with extremely disastrous consequences, 
for people and property located on this section of Pacific South 
America are habitually protected from dry but not from wet weather. 
Their houses are built largely of adobe bricks made from native clay 
and grasses. Their water supply comes chiefly from the melting 
snows in the high Andes, or from the fog and mists of the coast 
ranges. Their farms are situated in the river valleys and on the 
sides of slopes laid out in numerous terraces. Their railroads are 
placed along or across these elevations. In short, here is a desert 
economy in a region of pronounced land relief. 

So long as the northward-flowing Humboldt Current with its up- 
welling remains continuous and strong, kept so by south and south- 
east winds, and while the equatorial low-pressure area keeps its ac- 
customed place along the Equator, difficult weather problems in 
Peru and northern Chile do not exist. There are no storms. In- 

566766—44—_17 245 


246 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


deed, more than a century ago the storm-free character of the region so 
impressed Alexander von Humboldt, for whom the current was 
named, that he advised ships proceeding in this general region to sail 
along this coast whenever possible. 

The absence of thunderstorms is exceedingly noteworthy. For the 
Humboldt Current flows into the Tropical Zone in northern Peru, 
and to the Equator itself in the Galapagos Islands. Equatorial 
latitudes are supposed to be the worst in the world for thunder- 
storms. Indeed, directly across the Pacific in Java is found actually 
the most thundery portion of the earth. So the contrast is striking. 

The explanation is that along this eastern South Pacific coast the 
Humboldt Current acts as a water- and air-conditioner. Except for 
the aridity, the climate has no extremes. It is always cool, but never 
cold. It is like coastal California in summer. It is foggy and often 
misty in the hills, yet rain occurs seldom. The climate varies scarcely 
at all from the inward seaward edge of the Humboldt Current to 
the crest of the coast ranges. It is more or less the same, also, from 
where the current starts near Valparaiso, Chile (33° S., 73° W.), to 
approximately Talara, Peru (4° S., 81° W.). 

Flowing from south to north, the Humboldt Current is the feature 
which makes the weather approximately the same for a distance of 
2,500 miles. This vast marine river extends some 100 miles in width 
in Chile to 250 miles off Peru, where it turns from the continental 
border seaward. West of southern Ecuador it continues its normal 
character to the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles away. The numerous 
bare and rocky islands within this vast stretch afford ideal nesting 
sites for uncounted millions of cormorants, penguins, and other sim- 
ilar fowl. 

The wise people along shore protect this oceanic life, and have done 
so from prehistoric times, except for a half century when foreigners 
interfered. The birds repay their human benefactors with huge de- 
posits of the richest fertilizer on earth—guano. The ancient beds pro- 
vided many fortunes in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Re- 
cent and accumulating stores, the result of highly constructive con- 
servation practices, will insure permanent fertility to the soil in the 
neighboring fields. Indeed, it is because of guano that the nearby 
land areas have maintained a high productivity for more than 1,000 
years of intensive cultivation. 

The fertilizer manufactured by the birds is the result of the gor- 
mandizing on the enormous fish population in the surface waters of 
the Humboldt Current. Although fishing is a profitable industry to 
the fishermen of the countries adjoining, no systematic exploitation 
of the valuable aquatic resources of Peru has ever been made, except 
by the birds. 


OCEAN CURRENT CALLED “THE CHILD’—MEARS 247 


The Humboldt Current carries to the Equator a cool temperate 
climate, and the region is noteworthy for the absence of tropical dis- 
eases as well as tropical storms. Consequently the inhabitants of this 
part of the Tropics are unaccustomed to the features usually associated 
with such regions and are unprepared to cope with them; they regulate 
their lives largely upon the course and force of the Humboldt Current. 
Their faith is usually justified. But occasionally a violent year like 


rae en 


Figure 1.—Invasion of warm waters from the north (commonly called El Nifio) 
during average year (southern summer). 
Warm waters of El Nifio ——— ———~ ——— ———> 
Cool waters of the Humboldt— — — — - — — > — — > 


1891 or 1925 appears on the calendar. Then the northward-flowing 
Humboldt Current is abruptly either pushed aside or covered up tem- 
porarily by the southward-rushing El Nifio. In 1925 disturbances 
were reported as far south as Valparaiso; in 1941, as far as Pisco 
(12° S., 76° W.), or thereabouts. 

Wherever El] Nifio goes, both air and sea water become tepid. The 
cool-water life in the Humboldt Current, consisting of birds as well 
as fishes, migrates or dies. In 1925 the entire coast line was strewn 


948 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


with the dead from the sea. On Jand, swarms of mosquitoes, flies, and 
other insects infested the country. All living creatures suffered from 
the intense heat. Furthermore, tropical diseases afflicted the 
population. 

Worse still, the normally storm-free region was visited by violent 
thunderstorms, cloudbursts, and other torrential rains throughout the 
entire length of El Nifo’s extension. The Chanchan River is said to 


ay [Ae es | 
[ SRNR gee. 3 
ci oA ( 


Ficure 2.—Invasion of El Nifio into the Humboldt Current area in 1941 (south- 
ern summer). 
Warm waters of El Nifio ———-> ——_> ——> ———> 
Cool waters of the Humboldt — — —- — — ~ — —-~ — — > 


have risen 18 feet in 1 day. The famous inscriptions at Chan Chan, 
which had remained little changed for more than four centuries, were 
almost obliterated. Railway lines were washed away. 

In 1939 even a part of the foundation of the international highway 
bridge in northern Peru was swept off with the flood. A creek that 
usually could be waded had to be crossed in a basket attached to a 
cable. The adobes crumbled. Streams drowned entire valleys or 
overflowed their banks. Crops in the lowlands, where most of the 


OCEAN CURRENT CALLED “THE CHILD’—MEARS 249 


agricultural production takes place, were ruined. The rich soil was 
carried out of its place, and rocks, boulders, and debris left in its stead. 
This meant that when the weather conditions became stable, the farm- 
ers had to clear away the wreckage, replace the soil, and provide seed 
beds for next year’s crops. 

Strangers, unfamiliar with these unique conditions, ventured the 
belief that the inhabitants would have bumper crops on the usual desert 
lands, for the unusual abundance of moisture had produced a record 
rank growth in an astonishingly short time. This prophecy was borne 
out, for in recent deluges the inhabitants have taken advantage of the 
excessive precipitation by erecting temporary fences to protect their 
excellent harvests. However, it is apparent that these farms on the 
open desert are of sporadic value only. Lands that yield once in many 
years naturally do not have the same importance as those that produce 
unfailingly year after year during the season, or, in some localities, all 
the year around. 

Permanent benefits of the visitations from the Child Current are 
decidedly minor in any attempt to balance the enormous disasters that 
accompany it. One favor it leaves in its wake is drinking water in the 
ancient reservoirs of southern Ecuador and part of northern Peru, 
although, it should be added, in Peru much safer water is obtained 
from the melting snows of the eastern mountains. Furthermore, the 
rich sea pastures of the Humboldt Current benefit by the action of the 
rains in washing down these occasional huge additions of fertilizing 
material. 

Also, although El Nifio drives away swarms of cool-water fish, it 
transports numerous warm-water species to take their places, at least 
in part. In 1989 and again in 1941 the tuna, which rarely are seen 
beyond the border of the cold current, were observed near Callao 
(12°S., 77°W.). Indeed, in 1941 they were caught among the rocks of 
the port and were plentiful. 

Every year, in the southern summer, El Nifio approaches Capo 
Blanco (4°S., 11° W.) or Punta Aguja (5°S., 11°W.) with storms 
and their accompanying features. Between 1925 and 1941 only twice 
did the hot current go beyond these two bulging, westernmost points of 
the South American continent. Farther southward, invasions oc- 
curred in 1932 and 1939. It seemed that the old tradition of a 7-year 
cycle was being substantiated. The local inhabitants were well pleased 
to be able to anticipate the disasters at certain definite periods. 

Then came the invasion of 1941 in northern Peru, only 2 years after 
the heavy downpours during 1939. The floods of 1941 were much 
more generally extended than those of 1939; likewise the heated waters 
of El Nifio from shore seaward were more widely spread out. In 
1939 its waters were kept away from the shore line south of about 


250 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Punta Aguja by a narrow band of cooler water. In 1941 such a band 
did not exist. Not only did the rains of 1941 prove disastrous to 
crops, buildings, birds, fish, and local industries, but, even more im- 
portant, they upset the sense of security associated with the reputed 
7-year cycle. For the Child Current in 1941 was not observing the 
rules; it was cheating with an unexpected, off-schedule call which 
spelled uncertainty regarding the forecasting of future invasions. 

Many attempts have been made to explain the vagaries of El Niiio. 
Both the sun and the moon have been named as Nature’s accomplices. 
Sun-spottedness or lunar tides in the Antarctic have been blamed for 
the behavior of this turgid, hot current. Other explanations offered 
center nearer home, notably the southward shift of the low-pressure 
area along the Equator and its subsequent retreat southward of the 
South Pacific High off the coast of Chile. During unusual extensions 
of the Child Current, declining strength of winds from the south 
and southeast have been noticed, and northerly winds across Panama 
may have some effect at this season. It is noteworthy that northerly 
winds often precede or accompany El Nifio’s abnormal movements. 

The current has been identified definitely as a branch of the Equa- 
torial Counter Current, which normally either turns northward or 
recurves westward before reaching Panama. It joins up with the broad 
streams of the North or the South Equatorial currents. The Equa- 
torial Counter Current, it is well known, enjoys an abnormally high 
marine temperature because it flows directly under the heat equator 
across the entire width of the Pacific Ocean, approximately at its 
most widely separated points. 

Why the branch El Nino is sometimes hotter and stronger at some 
places than at others has not been satisfactorily explained. In 1939, 
for instance, the heated current, appearing in the form of bands or 
strips, was marked by a considerable range of temperature over a 
relatively small area. Some of these bands were hotter away from 
land than close inshore; and vice versa. At the same time it was 
observed that upwelling along shore in the Humboldt Current became 
weak or tended to cease altogether. Since the Humboldt and Califor- 
nia Currents are “mirror images” of each other during the season 
of upwelling within the California Current (as already stated, nor- 
mally there is upwelling within the Humboldt Current throughout 
the year), the most plausible explanations may be gleaned from fur- 
ther research applied to the northern stream. 

It is known, for instance, that there is a relatively warm subsurface 
coastal current flowing in the opposite direction from the Humboldt, 
and a similar counter subsurface current continually runs under the 
California Current. When upwelling ceases off the California coast, 
this subsurface current rises and flows inshore at the surface as 


OCEAN CURRENT CALLED “THE CHILD”—MEARS 951 


well as underneath. The writer continues to surmise that when 
winds, atmospheric pressure belts, and other phenomena cause a ceas- 
ing or a tendency to cease in the Humboldt Current upwelling, 
perhaps the subsurface counter current underneath tends to rise to 
the surface in a similar manner. When its rise occurs near or at the 
boundary line of the Humboldt, the subsurface current carries with 
it the hot surface water of the equatorial region. 

In other words, it appears likely that El Nino is the counterpart of 
the Davidson Current along the California shore, except that the 
Davidson is never a hot current. The Davidson Current originates 
within the cooler Temperate Zone. 

We know that “The Child” comes every year to Pacific South 
America shortly after Christmas. We know where it comes from and 
the general direction of its travel. How vigorous and active it may be 
cannot be foretold with any certainty. The traditional and still 
popularly accepted 7-year cycle no longer constitutes a sure basis of 
reckoning. The southernmost extension of its migration is another 
uncertainty. Someday we shall be better informed about the ranges 
and vicissitudes of this oceanic mystery. Until then, we can at least 
recognize the overshadowing importance of one of Nature’s most 
powerful forces in dominating a relatively unknown part of the 
Western Hemisphere. 


} We ie ppasird ’ 
‘phe Fins pai tod! aban: dinoet . 


: wre saad ii qe xy Seiilet a 7 
‘ae poeta ai ry See 4 MOVES ldo heh ah ee 


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fi of ‘ Une a ce ! ee Made 


mea panne ie KG wiv ieiatha <n 

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ie coe bie’ Lototibrend oT RaniaMes ith Mie bk 
1 Topalend eayiew eomaelarion Ko hyitol gh al wee TRAY die! 

apni ah moh cugion: athe iidiatita’ susunnidddin ; 

“u (pamunnee aol jus eke bane) Nianied’ ad’ Tass are yabardoe Nee 

degeal ss cornu dor teddy icih ane obit dado vite 13 edb ia 

dared olengtn Yo tecate Voy ‘aod guiwo hinders: 

eae Ri; eee? sa we sie ot garth nist nt "Baba 


| b hea pat 


Smithsonian Report, |943.—Mears PLATE 1 


1. A GENERAL VIEW OF GUANO-GATHERING OPERATIONS, PERU. 


Photograph from Pan American Union. 


= 
FRR ay 
oS * 


a. 
4 a* eee 


s ee 


2. RUINS OF CHAN CHAN, NEAR TRUJILLO, PERU. 


Photograph from Pan American Union. Courtesy W. R. Grace and Co. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Mears 


PEATE 2 


re: cman a 


7 ad - 


1. LOADING COTTON AT PAITA, PERU. 


Photograph from Pan American Union. Courtesy Grace Line. 


2. PORT WORKS, CALLAO, PERU. 
Photograph from Pan American Union. 


Courtesy Frederick Snare Company. 


MAPS, STRATEGY, AND WORLD POLITICS * 


By RicHarp Eprs Harrison 
Cartographer 


and 


ROBERT STRAUSZ-HUPE 
University of Pennsylvania 


[With 5 plates] 


Geography is the study of the earth, its regions, and, more particu- 
larly, the relationship of one region to another. Maps are tools for 
the study of geography. 

If the earth were flat as a table top, there would be few problems 
in map making. Each item of geographical interest could be shown 
in true relationship to any other item since the map, like a table top, 
is a plane and, hence, two-dimensional. The earth, unfortunately, is 
a round solid. Map making is mainly concerned with the problem of 
representing three dimensions on a two-dimensional piece of paper. 
Consider a globe—it represents the world in all respects, distances, 
areas, directions, shapes; this it does because it is a three-dimensional 
scale model. If a globe had a skin, it would be impossible to peel it 
off and flatten it into any single shape without splitting or stretching 
it. How to perform this operation is the dilemma of map making. 
The greater the extent of the sphere’s surface depicted by the map 
the greater is the distortion, and the smaller the extent of the surface 
the smaller the distortion. In large-scale tactical maps it shrinks 
almost to the vanishing point but it is present, nevertheless. In an 
area large enough to show a perceptible curvature of the earth, the 
distortion becomes an appreciable factor. It reaches a maximum 
when we attempt to depict the whole earth on one map. 

This difficult art of trying to represent the impossible is called 
cartography, and the devices by which cartographers attempt to show 
a round surface on a flat and generally rectangular piece of paper 
are called projections. Map making through the ages has necessarily 
limited itself to controlling distortion, so that one of the four prop- 
erties—distance, direction, shape, or area—is shown correctly at the 


1 Reprinted by permission from the Infantry Journal, November 1942. 
253 


254 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


expense of the others, or to achieve the best compromise among them 
without any one being mathematically true. For example, a map on 
which all areas are shown in true relative size (called equal area) 
is bound to have distortions in shape, distance, and direction. In 
some, two properties can be satisfactorily combined, as for example in 
the azimuthal equidistant map. This is so constructed that from 
its central point direction and distance are true to any other point, 
but a nonradial distance is more or less seriously out of scale. (The 
term “azimuthal” is typical of the obscure terminology of cartog- 
raphy. In the case of maps it simply means radial, or as the spoke 
of a wheel.) The well-known Mercator map has the remarkable 
property of showing both true compass directions (but not the great 
circle directions) and true shape. The size of areas and distances, 
however, are highly misleading. 

Perhaps the question most frequently asked of cartographers is, 
“What is the best world map?” The question goes to the heart of 
the cartographer’s problem for the answer is “There is no such thing 
as the perfect map.” One can pick out a “best” map for a given 
purpose, but that map will not satisfy other requirements. For ex- 
ample, the density of population is measured by the number of people 
inhabiting a specific area and should be shown on an equal area map, 
for to show it on a map where unit areas differ would introduce 
another variable making the study of relative density valueless. 
Where true compass direction between points is required (as in navi- 
gation), we must use Mercator; where great circles (the shortest dis- 
tance between two points on the globe) is the object of study, we 
must use the gnomonic projection which is unfortunately limited in 
scope to less than a hemisphere. To measure distances accurately we 
must have recourse to the globe or use cumbersome methods for trans- 
lating these distances from different projections. In fact, all these 
questions can best be studied on a scale model of the earth. Only 
a scale model is proportionately accurate in all respects—provided it 
is accurately made. Unfortunately the globe has disadvantages too. 
One can see less than half of it at a given moment; it is bulky; it is 
expensive. A fine collection of good detailed maps or a first-class 
atlas can be purchased for the price of an 18-inch globe. But a 
globe is the one and only corrective for the distortion present in all 
maps. 

Selecting a world map on which to study strategy or the geography 
of war is practically an insuperable problem. For strategy demands 
geographical truth—distances, directions, and areas must be pretty 
close to scale because when they are true it follows that geographical 
relationships in general are true. This is, however, impossible in any 
kind of world map. 


MAPS—-HARRISON AND STRAUSZ-HUPE 255 


The search for a compromise solution has led to many ingenious 
projections, but for strategy we still have to revert to the globe. One 
way of approximating true geographic relationship is to decide what 
part of the global area is of least interest and select a projection 
which tends to lump the distortion in that area. Thus the “center of 
remoteness” from the war and its connecting lines is at or very near 
the South Pole. In fact, from the South Pole to the thirtieth parallel 
south of the Equator is an enormous area, nearly one-third the 
earth’s surface, in which no engagement of importance has been 
fought and which supply lines touch only peripherally. To banish 
the distortion into the “inactive” area, we center the map on the 
opposite, or North Pole, and make linear scale true along radii from 
its pole along the meridians. This is called—in the semantics of 
cartography—the North Polar azimuthal equidistant projection and 
is, in spite of its name, a pretty good map for global strategy. At 
least it has the prime advantage of showing continuity of the main 
land areas involved in the war. 

From the Pole to within 20° of the Equator there is remarkably 
little distortion on this map. This area contains all the major world 
powers, all the major fighting fronts, except the Southwest Pacific 
islands, and most of the supply lines. The Mercator projection which 
for centuries has had an iron grip on the naval, military, and teach- 
ing professions, divides its distortions equally between the North and 
South Polar regions and is true on the Equator only. Owing to the 
construction of the Mercator projection, the regions immediately 
adjacent to the Poles cannot be shown at all, since they fade into 
infinity. Yet, because of the Mercator’s usefulness in navigation, 
most seafaring men have come to think of intercontinental relations 
mainly in terms of Mercator. Mercator’s world is the world of sea 
power. 

Politically ours is a Northern Hemisphere world. For 93 percent 
of the world’s population and about 75 percent of the world’s 
habitable land lie in northern latitudes. Modern history has been 
made in the northern latitudes. The power centers of the world are 
situated 40° or more north of the Equator. London, Berlin, Tokyo, 
and Moscow lie from 900 to 1,500 miles closer to the North Pole than 
to the Equator. Obviously a map whose maximum accuracy is at 
the Equator (like Mercator) cannot be expected to show the inter- 
relation of the centers of power in North America, Europe, and Asia. 
This relationship can be rendered most successfully on one of the 
polar projections. 

The map reader need not be misled by the distortions of a particular 
map; it is only necessary to note the specific distortion and make the 
proper visual correction. The main pitfall to avoid is the continual 


256 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


use of one map, for the mind is inexorably conditioned to its shapes. 
It begins to look “right” and all others “wrong.” There are some ex- 
amples of how this conditioning has produced false notions of geog- 
raphy. Example number one is provided by the Pacific war area. 
The Pacific is so large that any map of the entire ocean must have 
considerable distortion, but for generations we have depended almost 
exclusively on the Mercator projection. Similarly, the interrupted 
homolosine projection, devised by the late Chicago Prof. Paul Goode, 
sacrifices the polar regions to distortion. Its greatest accuracy lies 
in the zones of the world’s great shipping lanes and, hence, in the 
areas of naval strategy as conceived in the nineteenth century. Now 
both the United States and Japan lie on the fringe of Mercator’s and 
Goode’s area of reasonable accuracy, and the shortest line between them 
goes far above this area from Seattle across the Alaska Peninsula and 
curves above 55° N. before swinging southwestward along the Kurile 
Islands to metropolitan Japan. A few miles south of this line lies 
that too-long neglected bastion of North American defense, Dutch 
Harbor, while 2,300 miles south of that is Pearl Harbor. 

Pearl Harbor, in fact, lies on a line between San Francisco and 
Australia, and could only be called a flank defense by one familiar 
with the globe. Alaska, on the other hand, offers a jumping-off place 
for all the shortest routes from the United States to Asia, Japan, 
Siberia, China, India. For example, from the midwestern industrial 
center of the United States to Chungking, as flown by our ferry com- 
mand across the South Atlantic to Lagos to Khartoum to Karachi, and 
so on, is more than 12,000 miles; by way of Fairbanks and Siberia about 
8,000 miles. On Mercator the 12,000-mile jaunt looks reasonable 
enough. But the direct air route New York-Chungking (which passes 
close to the North Pole) is difficult to trace on the Mercator projection, 
as on this map it would go vertically off the top of the map near 
western Greenland, reappear above the central coast of Siberia and 
drop directly south to Chungking. 

Example number two is provided by the Atlantic theater of war. 
Both New York and London lie in the area of sharply increasing dis- 
tortion on Mercator. The great circle route between them reaches 
the fifty-third parallel. Hence the earlier .perplexities of Anglo- 
American relations. Hence also the widely held misconceptions of 
the Arctic, which is not a stagnant, impassable waste, but a fluid, prac- 
ticable pathway of the Atlantic. In fact, the Mercator mind blankly 
abandons the Arctic to infinity while it faithfully records the true 
proportions of the jungles of equatorial Africa, Amazonian rain for- 
ests, and the deserts of the Arabian peninsula. The Arctic is not only 
a branch of the Atlantic but provides a back-alley access to the Pacific. 
To be sure, ice blocks it for half of the year, but the savings in time 


MAPS—HARRISON AND STRAUSZ-HUPE 254 


and distance mark it still as a potential traffic lane. For example, the 
distance from North Atlantic naval bases to the Bering Sea by way of 
the Northwest Passage is less than half what it is by way of the 
Panama Canal. 

The importance of Iceland has been long recognized by the British 
and American commands. A glance at an Arctic map reveals the 
Norwegian coast as the only Axis frontage on the Arctic basin. The 
importance of a northern all-year route is shown by the figures: New 
York-Moscow via Murmansk, 5,300 miles; New York-Moscow via the 
Persian Gulf, 14,400 miles. This is not to suggest that the southern 
route be abandoned, for this route has the great advantage that sup- 
plies delivered at the head of the Persian Gulf can be distributed on 
comparatively short notice to several different fronts, the Russian, 
Egyptian, Syrian, and Indian. 

Example number three of thought conditioning by maps we can find 
on our home continent. Our eastern and western seaboards are far 
more conscious of danger from Axis bombing, yet Todelo, Detroit, 
Duluth, and Winnipeg are as close to Nazi-held Norway as Norfolk, Va. 

Salt Lake City, all of Montana and Idaho, part of North Dakota 
and Winnipeg are as close to Japanese air bases as Los Angeles. If 
either Axis partner were to establish advance bases in Greenland or 
Alaska, most of the Middle West would be in as great danger as 
the seaboards. Here again are facts not revealed on most of the 
maps in common use. 

We have pointed out that all maps must be misleading in them- 
selves, but use of a map even with knowledge of its limitations can 
also produce misleading conceptions of geography. Continual use 
of a given map in a fixed position results in dulling of perception. 
For example, the Mercator projection shows us with perfect accuracy 
the north-south geographical relation, yet most people are skeptical 
when told that all of South America lies to the east of Savannah, Ga. 
By looking at a Mercator wall map with the aid of a mirror, the 
true relation is made plain. The shapes on the map, of course, have 
not changed, they are merely reversed, and in the reflected image 
the immense eastward sweep of the coast from Brownsville to Natal 
is startlingly revealed. It is useful to turn maps upside down, or 
point them in a direction which might represent the point of view 
of an individual or a nation, as for example a Briton’s view of the 
continent, or Hitler’s view of the Middle East. This practice is 
recommended in defiance of the rooted conviction of the cartographer 
that north must always be at the top of the page. The globe has 
no “top.” 

The assault on map traditionalism has been led mainly by Ameri- 
can magazines and newspapers in their search for visual aids to 


258 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


reports from the theater of war. The North Polar equidistant pro- 
jection, for example, had hardly ever been used as a world map 
since Cassini (1696). After its reappearance in a leading national 
monthly, it has become increasingly popular with magazines and 
newspapers. Another case is the even older orthographic projection. 
This map has remarkable visual properties and its neglect is one of 
the major mysteries of cartography. A series of orthographics 
recently published provides in four maps a good and inexpensive 
substitute for a 20-inch globe. In the increasingly popular conic 
projection—the cone having been laid tangent to the forty-fifth 
parallel of latitude north—the battlefields of south Russia are very 
nearly true to scale. 

Many college geographers now realize that the United States has 
been lagging far behind other nations—the British and notably the 
Germans—who not only produce large quantities of maps but pound 
away at geography and all its lessons, political, economic, and 
military, throughout all grades of schooling. American cartography 
is now meeting this challenge with boldness and ingenuity—par- 
ticularly as regards the representation of large areas. German map 
making—profuse in detail and meticulous in execution—has largely 
stuck to conventional projections, and Mercator’s hold on German 
cartography may account for some German misconceptions as re- 
gards the strategic position of the United States and the Soviet Union. 
By contrast, American cartography now leads in the imaginative 
use of those projections which show large areas and true distances, and 
thus are best suited for teaching the new geography of international 
air communications. 

The psychological isolationism of the United States, be it said in 
conclusion, can be in large measure traced to our failures in map 
making and the teaching of geography—the prerequisites of educa- 
tion in international] relations. The world is round. By the skill- 
ful presentation of its “roundness” strategic realities are made clear. 


“HSAIY ADNAYMV] “LS AHL AO HLNOW AHL SAOSY AYAHdSOLVYLS AHL NI LNIOd V WOY4 NESS 3d0OuNgA 


Ob6e Vorjaaey sepy paeqory 


| 3LV1d ednyy-zsnesg pue uostiep{J—"¢p6] ‘j40dayy ueluosyyIuIG 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Harrison and Strausz-Hupé PEATE 2 


os 


J Ast Nel eee 


AT eee hig ees de 
MERCATOR PROJECTION. 


The cylinder is wrapped around the globe tangent to the Equator. Distortions which increase as polar 
latitudes are approached resu!t from straightening out the curved meridians. 


“apNnqyey jo jayjesed Yowe Joy 10}U90 B JOyyBI ING ‘aorjoeloid Jo 1a}u900 9[duris ou ‘eduUeNbesuod UI ‘ST e104, “quod ® JO pRaysUt 9poI19 Jo ov UB Aq payuaserdod SI J[osqt efod ay} AqoloyT, 
‘deur oubid oy} Uo safadio JURISIPIMbe OUT WIN} Sqo[s oY} UO sfeT[e1ed JueISIpINnbs exVUl OF poysn{[pe ey) SI oes [eIPeI 2Y, “SefosTd ouTOdeq sfeT[ered oy} pus ‘deur ay} UO SeuTT 
}YSTeI]S SUMBIPBA oUTODEg SUBIPIOM oY, ‘SIxB Ie[od oY} JO WOTSU9}x9 9} WO BOI oY} JO XOJIOA OY} YILM ‘opNINYe] Jo JUeZuR] °G oy} 0} JUSZUBy oqo[s oy} puNore poddeiM st aud oY L 


“NOILOALOUd DINOD 


€ 3ALV1d adn}y-zsneiqg pue uosieyj—"Ep6| ‘“odey ueiuosyjwG 


*poyovoidde st deur 94} Jo efog YINog ey} SB peyoje14s A[SNOUIIOUS SI 9pN4i ye] Jo spe[[ered 
oY] JO [Bos OY, “OPNIMYLl JUdAIOYIpP YORE 07 SuIpuodses10d 19}U9d JUDIOYIp B IN ‘SepN4qt}e [[e oJ Uoryooloid Jo 10}U9d BL SUIS OU ST dO} ‘MOTIDefoId IoJBdIOT IY} JO VSBd OY} UI SY 


“NOILOSZLOYNd LNVLSIGINO”A WHILAWIZY YV1Od HLYON 


palLyid gdnyy-Zsnei3g puke uosiiiepy—'¢p6| *‘qaodayy UetuosyzIWICG 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Harrison and Strausz-Hupé PLATE 5 


ORTHOGRAPHIC PROJECTION. 


In this case the center of projection is at infinity, and the projecting lines all fall perpendicular to the plane 
of projection. The oblique case is like a picture of the globe and recommended for its visual qualities. 
Yet the scale is true at the center and along any concentric cirele. Distortion increases toward the periph- 
eries 


THE NATURAL-HISTORY BACKGROUND 
OF CAMOUFLAGE? 


By HERBERT FRIEDMANN 
Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum 


{With 16 plates] 


INTRODUCTION 


If we look up the word “camouflage” in a standard dictionary, we 
find it defined as concealment by disguise. The disguise may be of 
such a nature as actually to simulate the immediate background or 
merely to break up the outline or reduce the visible solidity of the 
object camouflaged. When man tries to camouflage an object, he is 
literally disguising it; in nature on the other hand, the “disguise” is 
the normal coloration and is so termed because it has the effect, without 
effort, that man consciously aims for in his attempts. Although the 
word “camouflage” did not come into common usage until the time 
of the last war, the application by man of the ideas involved dates far 
back into antiquity. Based originally upon his observation of its 
occurrence in nature and its relative effectiveness under varying cir- 
cumstances, it has been adapted by man to his own purposes. So far, 
these purposes have been chiefly related to warfare, although, to a 
lesser extent in civilized societies and to a somewhat greater one in 
primitive peoples, camouflage has been applied to such activities as 
hunting and fishing as well. 

The essential elements involved in camouflage are those of conceal- 
ment and surprise. Concealment, to use military adjectives, may be 
either defensive or offensive (i. e., the value may be to render a pro- 
spective victim safe by its invisibility to a predaceous enemy, or it 
may render the marauder invisible from, and thereby help it to cap- 
ture, its intended quarry). Most wild creatures live in constant danger 
from enemies or are themselves ever on the alert for prospective prey. 
They do not know the comparative peace and security of our peacetime 
civilized lives. It is, therefore, not surprising to find animals of all 
sorts exhibiting countless types and degrees and variations of such 


1 Reprinted from Smithsonian War Background Studies, No. 5, Publ. 3700, December 
11, 1942. 


259 


260 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


concealing adaptations as are implied by the term “camouflage.” One 
of the fundamental factors in the lives of wild creatures is the combat 
between species (for food primarily, one feeding on the other or 
competing with it for a common food supply), generally referred to as 
the struggle for existence. The problem of self-preservation in nature 
is very real, ever present, and often so difficult to cope with that some 
species appear to be numerically limited by it to a very marked degree. 
As has been emphasized recently by Cott (the Royal Engineer’s Jour- 
nal, vol. 52, p. 502, 1938) , the vital— 


* * * urgent nature of this * * * problem of self-preservation is re- 
flected in the variety and specialization of Nature’s adaptive experiments in 
offence and defence. For instance, we see evidence for this in * * * speed, 
on land, in the air, and under water, by pursuer and pursued; in the use of stealth 
and surprise, of deception and ambush; in the display of warning signals, or 
of alluring baits; in the elaboration of smoke screens, traps, nets, and para- 
chutes; in retreat obtained by burrowing underground, or by the adoption of 
nocturnal habits; in the development of poison, and of deadly apparatus in the 
form of fangs or stings for its injection into the bodies of enemies or prey; in 
protection afforded by plated or spiny armor; and in the use of chemical warfare 
which is practised, for instance, by certain insects; and of poison gas, by crea- 
tures like the skunk. 

Of all these various adaptations—which it will be noted each have their parallel 
in the paraphernalia of modern warfare—perhaps none is so important, so 
widely distributed, or so perfect as that which renders animals inconspicuous, 
and often well-nigh invisible, in their natural surroundings. 


He even goes so far as to say that— 


* * * concealment appears to have been one of the main ends attained in 
the evolution of animals. And although in most spheres of modern warfare 
man has now (though in some cases only recently) advanced far ahead of the 
animal creation in his equipment for protection and aggression—in regard, for 
instance, to the development of armor and mobility, to the use of projectiles 
and of devices such as the balloon barrage (which in principle is “a gigantic 
spider’s web), smoke screens (which are used with effect by cuttle-fishes who 
dart for safety behind a dense cloud of sepia), and of instruments such as range- 
finders and sound-detectors and the like—the case of camouflage is an exceptional 
one. 

During the last war camouflage was developed extensively along 
such lines as dazzle-painting of ships to break up their mass and render 
their outlines less definite and less recognizable, of splotch-painting of 
field artillery pieces to simulate their surroundings, and of lightening 
those parts of objects that were usually in shadow to reduce the visual 
solidity of the objects involved. On the whole, it may be said that the 
bulk of the camouflage work done was to create concealment from 
ground level or at least from fairly low levels. Concealment from high 
above was relatively less important then than now. However, with 
the present enormous development in aerial warfare and the ever-in- 
creasing use of the air arm in both military and naval operations of all 


CAMOUFLAGE—FRIEDMANN 261 


kinds, the problem of effective concealment has come to resolve itself 
more into concealment at a distance or from a height than from nearby. 
It is probably no exaggeration to say that military camouflage has 
a greater and more vital importance now than it did in previous 
wars. Coincident with this increase in its use in warfare, there has 
been a growth of interest in the subject on the part of the public in 
general. Military camouflage, particularly with respect to its new 
developments and discoveries and applications, is necessarily a secret 
of the armed forces. But the natural-history basis of all this work may 
be here outlined for the interested reader. 

The modern study of concealment and disguise in nature may be 
said to date from the work of the American artist-naturalist, Abbott 
H. Thayer. His first paper, originally published in an ornithological 
journal, The Auk, in 1896, was given wide distribution to scientific 
circles generally in the following year in the annual report of the 
Smithsonian Institution. First among our scientific institutions to 
recognize the theoretical and potential significance of this work, the 
Smithsonian has ever since followed with critical interest the unfolding 
of the subject. In 1909 Thayer brought together in definitive form 
his discoveries, ideas, and observations in a stimulating book entitled, 
“Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom,” which has served 
as a basis for all subsequent work and which is still useful and interest- 
ing in spite of subsequent data. Parts of it have been modified or even 
negatived by more recent studies, but on the whole it still serves as a 
good introduction to the subject. The most recent comprehensive 
book on the topic is Cott’s “Adaptive Coloration in Animals,” published 
in 1940. This book has very extensive literature references and may 
be consulted by the reader interested in details beyond the scope of a 
general paper such as the present one. 

As Thayer first pointed out, in order to discuss intelligently the im- 
portance of distinguishability (i. e., the degree of possibility of being 
seen) in the lives of animals, we must remember that it is at the crucial 
moments, when they are on the verge of catching or of being caught, 
that sight is commonly the indispensable sense. Smell and hearing 
may lead an animal toward its prey or away from its enemy, but in the 
last all-important seconds, sight is relied on almost entirely in many 
animals. It is for these moments that animals have most need of 
concealing coloration, and for which, on the whole, their coloration is 
often best adapted, and when looked at from the point of view of the 
potential victim or the potential enemy, as the case may be, often proves 
to be what Thayer terms “obliterative.” It should be stressed at the 
outset that not all animals are concealingly colored, but this does not 
affect the interest in, and suggestive value of, those cases where they are. 
Overzealous students of animal coloration, especially the pioneers, have 

566766—44——18 


262 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


at times overstated their exposition of the subject by applying their 
ideas too widely and by insisting too much on one general explanation 
to cover all cases. The fact that the camouflaging of animals is not 
successful at times is not entirely a negation of the camouflaging effect 
of their coloration but may be due to the fact that other’senses, such 
as smell, are not affected by the visual results of concealing coloration, 
and offset or render futile the best that camouflage can do. 


OBLITERATIVE SHADING 


The immediate surroundings in which animals are found are natur- 
ally very variable in such matters as vegetation, amount of light, type 
of earth (whether rocks, gravel, sand, or bare earth are visible, or if 
everything is covered by leafage), and consequently the patterns needed 
for effective concealment are equally diverse. There is, however, one 
underlying factor common to animals in all of these backgrounds 
to a greater or lesser extent. It is this: regardless of its particular 
color pattern, to become relatively invisible an animal must lose its 
appearance of solidity, or, to put it in other words, must not appar- 
ently cast a shadow on itself. The light falling on an animal usually 
comes from one direction, generally from above, so that some parts 
of the animal (usually its back) are in stronger light and the opposite 
parts (usually the underside) are in dimmer light or even in the 
shadow of the illuminated parts and tend to look darker. This is 
easily seen by placing a white ball on a table with the ligh coming 
from above—the under surface of the ball is shaded and at once re- 
veals the spherical solidity of the ball, even though it be placed on 
a white table. In most animals the light and dark tones are so ar- 
ranged that they somewhat counteract the effect of self-shadowing. 
This is brought about by having the darker tones where the light 
strikes (usually from above) and the paler tones on the parts in 
shadow (usually the lower parts). In other words, darker tones plus 
more light on one side tends to equalize paler tones plus shadow on 
the other. The result is a greater or lesser degree of reduction of the 
visible solidity of the animal. This distribution of light and dark 
tones on the animal, tending to counterbalance the unequal lighting 
the parts receive, is known as obliterative shading or countershading. 

Countershading is, therefore, a basic principle of animal coloration 
and is of wide occurrence in nature. Many and quite unrelated 
groups of animals—mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, etc.—in all parts 
of the world show it. Countershading may he described in relation 
to body form, to environment, and to habits. In some fishes with 
deep-bodied, laterally compressed forms having nearly vertical sides 
with but very slight convex curvature, strong countershading would 
defeat its own end, and it is noteworthy that such species are only 


CAMOUFLAGE—FRIEDMANN 263 


slightly countershaded. In them, the degree of countershading shows 
a relation to the body form. (Examples are some of the ilarchid, 
scatophagid, and cichlid fishes, which, unfortunately, have no com- 
mon names.) Other animals living in dim light, where shading 
would be less extreme, reveal in the slightness of their countershading 
a relation to this environmental factor. Likewise, animals living on 
open plains in bright sunlight, such as many antelopes, deer, larks, 
etc., are strongly countershaded. In the case of the shark sucker, a 
fish that has the habit of attaching itself by a sucker on its head to 
different parts of sharks, no countershading is present. However, 
since it may have any side uppermost, the lack of countershading may 
be considered in relation to this habit, as the fish maintains no con- 
stant position with reference to the source of light. In some cater- 
pillars, the normal resting position is inverted; i. e., the back is down 
and belly up (example, the larva of the eyed hawk-moth, Smerinthus 
ocellatus), and it is indeed suggestive that in these creatures the coun- 
tershading is reversed being darker on the underparts and paler on 
the back. 

The simplest form of countershading is merely an even, gradual 
transition from darkest on the parts receiving the most light to lightest 
on the parts most in shade. However, the same effect may be, and in 
nature often is, effected by patterns which blend at rather short dis- 
tance. For example, the spots in many spotted animals are larger on 
the back and become smaller on the sides and disappear on the under- 
parts. If these spots are fairly close together, at a distance they tend 
to blend, forming a graded countershading. The body stripes of 
zebras, for example, are very broad on the back and taper very ap- 
preciably on the sides, giving again something of the effect of counter- 
shading. Mottram (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1915, pp. 679-692) ex- 
pounded this idea that certain patterns found on animals become 
blended with distance and result in obliterative shading. ‘This depends 
on the fact that if a pattern composed of alternating dark and pale 
markings, regardless of shape (they may be bars, stripes, spots, etc.), is 
looked at from successively increasing distances, a point will be reached 
from which the separate markings are lost in a blended effect, pro- 
ducing a tone depending on the relative amounts of dark and pale. It 
may be pointed out that this type of countershading is effective only at 
a distance and would be of little value to an animal in the last 
crucial seconds when it is about to catch or to be caught, but it might 
help prevent the situation from arising. However, the picture is not 
as simple as it has been presented so far in this paper. In the majority 
of cases, the immediate background against which even the most per- 
fectly countershaded animal is to become invisible is not an even tone 
of one color without breaks of any kind. If there is a background of 


264 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


grass, for example, each blade (when close up) has a shadow, or at 
least an outline; fallen twigs or leaves present even more shapes and 
irregularities of light and dark. The combination of countershading 
and pattern resemblance does result, however, in something similar 
to blended patterns, but, however, functions also, and in many instances 
chiefly, at close range. Having now grasped the role played by obliter- 
ative shading, we may proceed to examine the varieties of patterns 
and color arrangements found in animals which are concealingly 
colored. 
COLOR RESEMBLANCE 


Most of us have at one time or another become aware of a general 
similarity in appearance between certain animals and their surround- 
ings. We have come to expect creatures living in deserts or sandy 
places to have pale or sandy hues and not to startle us with the bril- 
liant greens and reds of some of the denizens of dense tropical forests. 
Without asking ourselves why or even consciously wondering, we con- 
nect the white of the polar bear and of the snowy ow] with the snow and 
ice of their Arctic habitat. Again it must be emphasized that not all 
animals are colored to resemble part of their environment; but the 
fact that exceptions are easy to find should not minimize the other 
fact that a very great many animals of all groups and living in all parts 
of the world and in all kinds of surroundings do bear on their coats a 
resemblance to their immediate environment. 

General color resemblance, of necessarily only moderate value in 
effecting concealment, is shown by the preponderance of green birds, 
ereen tree toads, tree snakes, arboreal insects, etc., in the forested parts 
of the world, with a similarly large number of brownish forms 
dwelling on or in the forest floor. The common salt-and-pepper 
mottling or grayish-brown washes of shore birds show a general re- 
semblance to their sandy or pebbly habitat. The whole question of 
color resemblance is still unfortunately largely couched in terms of 
human color vision. This will have to be altered with increasing 
knowledge of the color vision of the enemies of each animal showing 
color resemblance to its background. An example may help clarify 
this point. It is known that modern developments in infrared pho- 
tography have revealed that different green animals differ greatly in 
their absorption of infrared light, and consequently those with great 
absorptive properties photograph as dark objects and those that 
reflect (and do not absorb) the infrared come out as light objects in 
the photographs. It is suspected that some predaceous animals, such 
as certain owls, have a visual range beyond the human one on the 
infrared end of the spectrum. It would follow from this that some 
green animals might be seen readily by the owls while others would 


CAMOUFLAGE—FRIEDMANN 265 


not, although to our eyes both would seem equally well con- 
cealed by their color. This problem is well known to the military 
camouflage experts in their experiments in concealing buildings, etc., 
with green paint or with leafy branches, the paint absorbing the 
infrared light and the chlorophyll in the leaves reflecting it. 

Just aS we may consider the general applicability of color resem- 
blance in animals by virtue of the impressively large numbers of 
species that show some general color similarity to their surround- 
ings, we may also sense its importance by considering the diversity 
of coloration in related species with diverse habits and habitats. Not 
only may we say that many forest denizens are greenish, many ter- 
restrial dwellers brownish, many beach forms sandy in color, but also 
that within single groups of animals with diverse habitats we find all 
types of coloration in greater or lesser harmony with their back- 
grounds. In spiders, for example, the bark-dwelling species are 
usually brownish, those that live on stones are frequently grayish or 
with a broken pattern of dark and light; grass spiders are often 
green, while flower-inhabiting forms are whitish, yellow, pink, etc., 
in keeping with the flowers in each case. 

Going still further, we find that color resemblance to particular 
local backgrounds varies geographically within single species. For 
example, in northern Africa crested larks of the genus Ammomanes, 
birds that dwell on the ground in open arid places, match surpris- 
ingly the color of the earth and sand. In one spot the ground color 
may be pale and tawny, so are the larks in that place. In another 
area, the terrain may be dark brown—so are the larks; in still another 
where blackish lava is a prominent feature of the substrate, the larks 
are similarly blackish. Yet all are one species, and intergrading 
specimens may be obtained between all their various extremes of 
color. A similar condition has been demonstrated in numbers of 
small mammals, such as deer mice, pocket mice, etc., by Benson (Con- 
cealing Coloration among Some Desert Rodents of the Southwestern 
United States, Univ. California Publ. Zool., vol. 40, p. 1-70, 1933). 
The cases of this kind could be greatly multiplied, and practically 
every group of animals would be found to contain instances of the 
sort. 

In some animals we find a seasonal change in coloration which ap- 
pears to be directly correlated with seasonal changes in the back- 
ground. Well-known examples of this type are many of the ptarmi- 
gan, a group of northern grouse which are mottled gray, brown, and 
black in the summer, blending remarkably well with the pebbly and 
grassy habitat, and pure white in winter when their environment is 
covered with snow. The arctic fox shows a similar seasonal change 
in color. This type of color resemblance is, however, not very fre- 


266 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


quent in nature. In many cases the seasonal changes in coloration 
are not such as make for greater concealment. 

All the examples of color resemblance hitherto mentioned are fixed 
for their durations, whether they be for life or for a season only. 
There are a number of types of color resemblance in animals which are 
variable and depend on changing environmental conditions. Some 
are built up gradually over a considerable period of time, while others 
are very rapidly brought about. In a sense, the seasonal changes al- 
ready alluded to are a connecting type of color resemblance between 
definitely fixed and purely variable resemblances, but their period of 
effectiveness is long enough to warrant our considering them with the 
fixed types. In the lives of many kinds of animals, especially the more 
active ones—that is, not sessile or parasitic forms—individuals are con- 
stantly coming into contact with differing variations of their im- 
mediate surroundings. In many cases when danger is sensed these 
creatures tend to get back as rapidly as they can to their optimum 
backgrounds, but others have the ability to meet the changed condi- 
tions with variable coloration. Probably the best-known case of 
rapid change in color is that of the chameleon, a small lizard which 
in the course of a few minutes can change its color through a sur- 
prising range of browns, reds, and greens, and darks and lights. 
Other lizards, such as some iguanas and geckos, are also known to 
possess the ability to alter their color rapidly. All are essentially 
arboreal dwellers and rely on concealment more than on speed for their 
safety. Terrestrial forms rely, in many cases, on speed first, and then 
on concealment. 

Fishes also possess amazing ability to change their color in keeping 
with changes in the background against which they find themselves. 
A notable series of experiments on the flounder was conducted by Mast 
(Changes in Shape, Color, and Pattern in Fishes and Their Bearing 
on the Problems of Adaption and Behavior, with Special Reference 
to the Flounders, Paralichthys and Ancylopsetta. Bull. U.S. Bureau 
Fisheries, vol. 34, pp. 173-238, 1916). The flounders, ordinarily gray- 
ish brown or grayish olive in color, speckled with darker brown, not 
only can and do respond to altered backgrounds by changing from pale 
sandy yellow to dark blackish brown, but even alter the fineness or 
coarseness of their pattern in keeping with that of the background, 
simulating to an astonishing degree the texture and pattern of the 
bottom on which they are resting. When lying on a uniform muddy 
background, they tend to be uniformly colored, the speckling being 
much reduced in size and number of specks and in any difference in 
color from that of the rest of the fish; when placed on coarse gravel 
they become coarsely flecked and speckled. The mechanism by which 
the chromatophores in the skin are caused to effectuate the resulting 
changes is only partly understood and is out of our province in this 


CAMOUFLAGE—FRIEDMANN 267 


short review, our interest in the present paper being in what happens 
rather than in how it is caused. Longley found that reef fishes effect 
rapid color adjustment following vertical movements—some species 
change from the decidedly patterned colors that they wear when on the 
bottom (and can be seen only from above) to a uniform coloration 
when rising upward through deep water (where a bottom-approxi- 
mating pattern would be revealing rather than concealing). Another 
important result on Longley’s work is the demonstration that parti- 
cular phases of color pattern are frequently correlated with definite 
types of activity in a manner which is in keeping with what seems to 
result in optical illusion (Year Book Carnegie Institution of Washing- 
ton, vol. 27, pp. 158-163, 1918). For example, different fishes which 
have— 

* * * alternate costumes of longitudinal stripes or uniform color, and of 
transverse bars, wear the former when in motion (an arrangement which makes 
for concealment in that it tends to mask forward movement) and the latter when 
at rest (when bars better serve to break up the contour and surface form against 
a broken background). Moreover, precisely similar adjustments are found in 
certain squids, which wear stripes for swimming and bands for resting [ex. 
Cott, Adaptive Coloration in Animals, p. 28, 1940]. 

Other examples of rapid color change have been recorded for other 
groups of animals—crustaceans, cephalopods, etc., but the important 
fact in the present connection is that beneath all the diversity of ana- 
tomical and physiological mechanisms involved in these different 
animals there is usually a common type of external stimulus (change in 
immediate environment as far as color, texture, etc., is concerned) and 
a common type of response. 

Slower responses of similar type are known in certain insects and 
spiders. Poulton (Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. 178, pp. 
311-441, 1887) showed by experimental studies that the larvae and 
pupae of certain butterflies possess the power of acquiring the color- 
ation of their immediate surroundings and showed that in species of 
Vanessa and Pieris the pupal adjustment was due to extreme sen- 
sibility of the larvae to reflected light during the final resting position 
prior to pupation. 

Aside from obliterative shading and color resemblance many animals 
are still further concealed by the fact that the patterns of their 
coloration tend to break up their outlines, so that at a distance they 
seem to be bits of the general surroundings rather than a recognizable 
shape which would tend to reveal them. This type of marking is 


known as— 
DISRUPTIVE COLORATION 


Even with better than average color resemblance and with some 
countershading, an animal is recognizable frequently by the fact that it 
presents a continuity of surface enclosed by an easily identified contour 


268 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


with which we (or its enemies) are ordinarily familiar. Thus, as 
Cott rightly insists— 

* ¥* * for effective concealment, it is essential that the telltale appearance 
of form should be destroyed. The difficulty of doing this is met, often with 
extraordinary success, by the application of optical principles involving the use 
of pattern. 

The function of disruptive coloration (which is a combination of color 
and pattern tending to break up or to reduce the visible outline of 
the animal) is to prevent or to delay the quick recognition of the 
object by sight. 

Its success depends not only upon optical principles, but upon a psychological 
factor. When the surface of a fish * * * is covered with irregular patches 
of contrasted colours and tones, these patches tend to catch the eye of the 
observer and to draw his attention away from the shape which bears them. 
The patterns themselves may be conspicuous enough, but since they contradict 
the form on which they are superimposed, they concentrate attention upon 
themselves, and pass for part of the general environment. 

In a general way it may be said that the concealing effect of a dis- 
ruptive pattern is greater if parts of its included pattern bear a good 
color resemblance to the background while other elements are strik- 
ingly distinct. The result is that the background seems to be seen 
through the animal in places, thus breaking up its visual form. Thus, 
a butterfly with a brown and green pattern would stand out as a 
butterfly against a background not containing either of these colors, 
but against a brown ground it would look like an aggregate of green 
spots, or, against a green ground, like a bunch of brown marks. This 
partial matching of the background is spoken of as differential 
blending. The effectiveness of this disruptive coloration is greatly 
increased if the adjacent contrastingly colored markings are also con- 
trasting in tone (lightness or darkness). Cases such as the black 
collar bands on white or pale sandy plovers, of dark lateral longi- 
tudinal stripes on some pale-colored antelopes, come readily to mind 
in this connection. Everyone who has watched ring-necked plovers 
on the beach is aware of the disruptive effect of the collar at a 
significantly short distance. 


CONSTRUCTIVE SHADING 


The amount of difference in tone and color of immediately adjacent 
parts of the pattern has an important bearing not only on the degree of 
success in its disruptive illusion, but also on the illusory pictorial relief 
it may create on the animal’s surface. For example, if between the 
darkest and the lightest elements in a color pattern there is a gradual 
change from one to the other, the optical effect is that of a rounded sur- 
face (from shade to light) ; if, however, the darkest and the lightest 
elements are in immediate juxtaposition the effect produced is one of 


CAMOUFLAGE—FRIEDMANN 269 


sharp ridges. Convexities may be made to appear concave, flat surfaces 
to assume undulations, and curved areas to flatten out, by the relation of 
adjacent pattern elements. The consequent distortion of the true 
shape of the creature into the resulting optical shape helps to conceal 
it just as well as the actual disruptive marks tend to reduce it to a mass 
of unconnected pieces. It is a curious fact, and one which demon- 
strates the enormous range of form, color, and pattern to be observed 
in animal coloration, that the general result of camouflaged appear- 
ance can be arrived at by such diametrically opposed methods as oblit- 
erative shading (which reduces or dissolves solid form) and construc- 
tive shading (which builds up the appearance of form that is not 
there—such as ridges, convexities, etc.). It may be well to state again, 
in different words, this matter of constructive shading and disruptive 
marks. In a very general way it may be said that the illusion of dis- 
continuity (the result of disruptive marks in their simplest form) is a 
matter of color contrast on a fairly even surface, while constructive 
shading produces the illusion of surface modeling. A combination of 
the two not only fragments a whole into optically distinct and appar- 
ently unrelated parts, but also by its sculptural illusion renders it more 
difficult for the eye to conceive these pieces as being in the same plane 
and therefore connectable. In some instances, constructive shading 
brings about an astonishing similarity to other objects such as the 
appearance of leaf vein ridges in some caterpillars. 

Somewhat akin to constructive shading in its power of optical distor- 
tion is another type of disruptive pattern which has the effect of seem- 
ing to connect wholly distinct and not even adjacent parts of the body, 
thus further confusing the eye of the beholder and to that extent help- 
ing to hinder or delay recognition of the animal. A good example is 
the banded pattern in many frogs. When the frog is at rest (and in 
most cases no camouflage is of use when the creature is moving) the 
legs are folded close against the body and the bands of the body ap- 
pear to be continuous with those of both the upper and the lower por- 
tions of the leg, optically merging into one mass. If the bands went 
in different directions on the legs they would stand out distinctly from 
the body and attract attention. 

In many fishes there is a dark diagonal disruptive band on the body 
which often extends on to the pectoral or the pelvic fins, which, if not 
so connected by pattern with the body would be much more noticeable. 
Many insects show similar patterns involving legs or antennae as well 
as portions of the body. This type of color pattern has been termed 
coincident disruptive pattern by Cott, who was the first to emphasize 
the continuity of patterns of the head across the eye in order to hide the 
eye itself, ordinarily the most difficult part of an animal to conceal. 


Many fishes, frogs, snakes, birds, and mammals have large rounded black pupils 
which conform to this very shape most likely to catch an observer’s eye. However 


270 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


effectively such animals may be camouflaged in other respects, unless the eye re- 
ceives special treatment, it will prejudice the success of the whole color-scheme. 
It is therefore very interesting, though not surprising, to find that nature—the 
supreme camouflage artist—has dealt in great detail with this problem, which is 
evidently one of urgent importance. * * * 

In its essentials, the method * * * invokes the optical principle of coinci- 
dent disruptive coloration. * * * If aneye, and particularly its staring black 
pupil, can be made to appear another shape, then it will cease to resemble an eye. 
In theory, such an illusion could be created by covering the eye, or its pupil, with 
a black mask of irregular shape—so designed as to blend with and seem part of 
the pattern which surrounds it. Now that is essentially the system devised in 
nature. * * * Animals belonging to many widely separate families and orders 
have the eyes camouflaged in precise detail. Although the underlying principle 
is everywhere the same, the incidents of the picture vary widely in different 
eases. Sometimes an irregular dark disruptive area includes the whole orbit. 
Sometimes the upper margin of an elongated patch of dark pigment crosses the 
iris exactly on a level with the top of the pupil. Or conversely it may extend 
beneath to the pupil’s lower limit. Or again the eye may be crossed by a stripe 
exactly the width of the pupil itself. In other cases similar effects are produced 
in vertical bars instead of horizontal stripes; or in diagonal markings or irregular 
shapes varying greatly in size and distribution. The one consistent feature in all 
this diversity is the significant relation between that unmitigated black spot—the 
pupil—and the dark element which serves to absorb it. 

Given an animal with any or all of the types of concealing color 
pattern already discussed, it may yet be concealed in vain in some cases, 
if its contour or bounding margin be unaffected by the camouflage. 
Actually, in most cases of disruptive pattern the outlines of the animal 
are affected by it, and further marginal disruption is unnecessary, but 
in some instances the peripheral parts—tail, limbs, head and neck, or 


even the lateral contour margin are disruptively marked. 


CONCEALMENT OF THE SHADOW 


We have already seen, in the case of the white ptarmigan against a 
snowy background, that aside from the bird’s lack of obliterative 
shading and its consequent visual solidity, its presence is revealed by 
the shadow it casts on the snow at its feet. In case of danger the shadow 
would be largely done away with, as the bird would squat low on the 
snow and actually cover a good part of itsshadow. It is actually no ex- 
aggeration to say that in many cases of animals with a color pattern 
more or less concealing in nature, the shadow is more noticeable than 
the animal casting it. In creatures of laterally compressed form such 
as butterflies that rest with wings closely over the back, we find two 
definitely established orientation habits which appear to be related 
to the matter of shadow concealment or reduction. A number of 
species, notable among which is the green hairstreak butterfly (Thecla 
rubi), tilt the wings away from the median vertical plane toward the 
shadow, thereby hiding a large part of it. The degree of tilting is said 
to be constant for each species, and numerous independent observers 


CAMOUFLAGE—-FRIEDMANN 271 


have testified to the fact that the wing tilting is not a casual or acci- 
dental reaction, but is definitely correlated with the direction of sun- 
light and also to the approach of enemies. Another group, without 
the wing-tilting habit, always seem to orient the body with respect to 
the direction of sunlight when alighting on any object so that the 
shadow cast by the wings (which are the largest part of the creature) 
is reduced to a thin, inconspicuous line instead of a sizable dark area. 
In animals with dorsoventrally flattened or depressed body form, 
shadows are often reduced by the animal’s squatting closely against 
the ground or branch or whatever the creature is resting on, but in 
many cases there are structural features which, whatever their other 
functions may or may not be, do serve to reduce shadow by covering 
it from sight. Many reptiles and amphibians, such as the horned toad, 
have lateral finlike flanges on the tail which not only help to cover 
the shadow that would otherwise be visible, but by their gradual slope 
from the top of the tail to the substratum throw little if any shadow 
beyond themselves. These flanges make for unbroken continuity be- 
tween the more substantial part of the animal and its immediate 
surroundings. The sides of the body are flattened out into longitudinal 
flanges. As we have already noted in discussing constructive shading, 
the effect of false shadows, such as those of the leaf vein ridges, may 
be brought about by pattern in some creatures, such as certain 
caterpillars. 
DISAPPEARING COLORATION 


All the items examined so far have to do with animals that are more 
or less stationary. There are also a great many animals that show 
bright patches or patterns when in motion but suddenly conceal them 
when alighting. From the standpoint of the pursuer it is very con- 
fusing to be chasing something with a bright, vivid telltale mark and 
then find it suddenly vanishing. It often results in the pursuer racing 
on beyond the hiding prey and thereby losing all chance of obtaining 
it. Color patterns of this disappearing type are of two main kinds, 
the one depending on the distinctive pattern being actually covered 
when at rest, the other depending on differential orientation to light. 
In the first type the cases may be very simple, involving merely the 
disappearance of the bright color area, or they may involve elaborate 
protective color resemblance to the substratum on the part of the 
covering portions of the body. As may be expected, the second is far 
more effective as concealment than the first, but in both the element 
of confusing surprise is equally present. An example of simple dis- 
appearing coloration is the common North American woodpecker, 
the flicker (Colaptes auratus). In flight this bird shows a large con- 
spicuous white patch on the rump, and bright golden yellow under- 
sides on the wings and tail. On alighting these parts are immediately 


272 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


concealed, and an enemy following these beacons might well be con- 
fused by their sudden extinction. An example of the more elaborate 
type is the leaf butterfly (Kallima paralekta). This insect has a 
bright orange, brown, and whitish pattern of bold markings on the 
upper surface of its wings, which make it a conspicuous sight when 
the creature is flying. On alighting on a twig, however, the wings 
immediately close together over the back, leaving only their undersides 
visible. Both in color and in form the closed wings look amazingly 
like a dried leaf and the insect is suddenly completely concealed, to 
the bewilderment of its possible pursuer. 

The other type of disappearing color is that found in animals with 
iridescent scales, feathers, etc. A gleaming ruby light, as on the throat 
of the male ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), is 
suddenly extinguished as the bird, in its darting about, alters its 
orientation to the sunlight. This is, in effect, disappearing coloration 
in motion, as opposed to concealment of color when at rest, and it may 
be argued that when in motion the creature is less in need of camouflage 
than when still, but within this lesser sphere of necessity, it may have 
a protective effect. 


THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONCEALING COLORATION IN NATURE 


There has been much difference of opinion among naturalists as to 
the real effectiveness of concealing coloration in animals, some esti- 
mating its success as almost unbelievably complete, while others con- 
tend that it has no value whatever and is a reflection of a purely 
human approach to the subject. This paper is hardly the place to 
evaluate the arguments and the evidence pro and con, but it may be 
pointed out that the great majority of opinion does grant it some 
effectiveness, and, what is even more important, animals that are what 
we call concealingly colored seem, by their habits, to rely on their 
coloration to save them from attack. It may be further mentioned 
that the application to man’s war efforts of the principles involved 
in concealing coloration in nature have been generally conceded to be 
of sufficient effectiveness to warrant their continued and even in- 
creased use. We are not concerned in this brief review so much with 
the various details of the functions of concealing coloration as with 
a survey of the methods by which it is attained. 


CONCEALING BODY FORM 


Not only are many animals rendered less conspicuous by reason of 
their coloration, but also in many (and some of the most startling) 
cases by their form as well. We have already had a suggestion of 
this in the body and tail flanges that tend to eliminate or conceal 
shadow, but may now briefly consider some of the main types of dis- 


CAMOUFLAGE—FRIEDMANN 273 


guise brought about by the shape and contours of the animals 
involved. 

As might be expected, morphological (i. e., form) resemblances are 
to be found chiefly among smaller creatures whose whole lives are 
spent against unchanging backgrounds, i. e., creatures that are en- 
vironmentally more rigidly fixed. Also, inasmuch as morphological 
resemblances are generally more specifically related to definite items 
in the surroundings than are many color resemblances (that are often 
of a general similarity to a background complex) it is to be expected 
that these special resemblances are chiefly to such things as leaves, 
bark, stems, seaweed, etc. On the whole, it may be said that the 
value of the various types of camouflaging coloration depends upon 
principles of visual concealment or confusion, while the morphological 
resemblances partake more of the nature of definite, specific, particu- 
late disguises. For purposes of simplification, it may be said that 
we have to do here with the actual modeling of the body and not 
with constructive shading. 

We have already seen an instance of leaf resemblance in the case 
of Kallima, the leaf butterfly. The ends of the wings are actually 
shaped like the stems of leaves and the outlines of the closed wings 
are duplicates of the periphery of leaves. Even more elaborately 
worked out is the leaf resemblance of not only the whole, but even 
the parts of such leaf insects as Chitomiscus and Cycloptera. Aside 
from the all-important details which make or mar the effectiveness 
of the disguise, the basic common element in all leaf-resembling 
creatures is thinness. Whether the thinness is produced by a dor- 
soventral flattening or depression of the body or by a lateral com- 
pression, the creature orients itself accordingly with respect to its 
background, just as we found in the types of shadow elimination in 
butterflies. Leaf resemblance is found not only in insects, but also 
in some fishes, chameleons, and other forms of animals. 

Resemblance to bark is one of the commonest types of morphologi- 
cal disguise. The reason for this is that all barks (in spite of defi- 
nite specific differences) show a smaller range of variation than do 
all leaves, for example, and at the same time the bark fauna is very 
extensive. Bark-resembling creatures include many moths, beetles, 
spiders, tree frogs, climbing lizards, and a few birds. In the moths 
alone, many distinct families have produced instance after instance 
of bark resemblance. 

Closely connected with bark resemblance is resemblance to lichen, 
as lichen is so frequently found on places analogous to tree trunks 
(from the standpoint of their inhabitants). Not only do we find the 
same range of animals in all parts of the world with lichenlike ap- 
pearances or with strong bark resemblances, but we even find animals 
using lichens apparently for their concealing properties. For example, 


274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), the wood- 
pewee (IMyiochanes virens) and the blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila 
caerulea) cover the outsides of their nests with lichens, with the result 
that they are very well concealed. 

Also associated with bark resemblance are those cases of twig re- 
semblance, well illustrated by the familiar walking-stick insect. All 
parts of the body are here modified into slender twiglike pieces, and 
the joints between them have much of the appearance of plant nodes. 
Furthermore, the postures struck by the insects are in keeping with 
the illusion of small twigs. As a matter of fact, the harmony be- 
tween usual posture (which is not rigidly fixed in most cases) and 
the illusory form or color resemblance in many of these concealingly 
colored animals is one of the strongest lines of evidence for the reality 
of the camouflage. Otherwise, it might well be a purely man-made 
interpretation, but when creatures seem to act according to this color 
or form, or to be colored and shaped according to their normal activi- 
ties, it is difficult not to grant the reality of this correlation. 

In the sea we find crustaceans and fishes that have many irregular 
filamentous appendages, which bring about an astonishing resem- 
blance to the seaweed in which these particular species live. The 
fauna of the Sargasso Sea, an area in the Atlantic Ocean filled ‘with 
the Sargassum weed, are perhaps the best-known examples of this 
kind, although others occur in all the oceans wherever seaweeds are 
common. There are numbers of species of small fishes, of crabs, etc., 
that spend their lives in the floating masses of Sargassum weed, and 
of this ecologically closely limited fauna, the percentage of seaweed 
form resemblance is high indeed. Specimens taken out of their nat- 
ural environment seem merely bizarre curios of the naturalists’ cab- 
inet, but in their native haunts they merge completely into their 
surroundings. 

CONCLUSION 


Camouflage in nature, is, then, widespread, both in all parts of the 
world, and within all groups of animals. It may be brought about 
by coloration alone, by form alone, or by any possible degree and type 
of combination of color or morphological characters. It may be rig- 
idly fixed or remarkably plastic. Its degree of success in different 
forms is highly variable, and, as might be expected, the opinions of 
investigators as to its merits have been equally diverse. In this brief 
review we have merely pointed out some of the types of camouflage, 
have given some idea of its complexity, of its multiplicity of methods 
and approaches, and of the astonishing heights of deceptive efficiency 
it attains in many cases. Such controversial outgrowths of the sub- 
jects as mimicry and the theoretical difficulties it entails have been 
deliberately left out of the present discussion. 


( AdoISTAy [BINQe NV 
Jo Winesnyy UBdIIeuTy Asalinod ‘A 


SePPAV “AO Aq ydeisojoyd) “Wuljstp sse_ puw ssoy Sutur0d0q sodiays ayy “‘punorlsyoBq 9y4 O1UL pus[q 0} pus} seaqoz juR 
“SNIVId NVOIWSAY LSVQ AHL NI SSAHOINLSO GNV SvHaazZ 


ISIp @10U ay] Moy X0N 


eae 


3LV1d 


uueUupaldy “Ché6l “qaoday ueIUOsy IWS 


(uinesnyy [BUOMBN “9 “f ‘291 ‘[[N@ Woy) 


“ONNOYSDMOVA AHL AO LVHL HLIM 
SON31g SGYIG AHL AO NYALLVd YOWWD AHL TISAM MOH DNIMOHS ‘VHSV1V “HeVd IWNOILVYN ABZINIMOW LNNOW LV NVSOINYEVLd HOOY 


lg 


Z Aivid uueuipall{ ‘€rél *yaoday UeTUOSYFIUIC 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 3 


1. COUNTERSHADING AND COLOR RESEMBLANCE IN THE 
SANDERLING (CROCETHIA ALBA). 


(Drawn by W. A. Weber.) 


ere 


=e Rae 
Se oe le ech 2 


2. COLOR RESEMBLANCE WITHOUT COUNTERSHADING IS NOT ENOUGH. 
The white-tailed ptarmigan is revealed by its visual solidity and by itsshadow. (Drawn by W. A. Weber.) 


Friedmann PLATE 4 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.- 


1. Photograph from life. 


' 
{ 

Ke 4 
oe 


BAW 
S, 


ie S&S 


* 
yey 
To 


move color pattern. 


THE OBLITERATING EFFECT OF COLOR RESEMBLANCE IN THE 


y 


Bird retouched to re 


9 


WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN (LAGOPUS LEUCURUS). 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 5 


1. Nighthawk, adult, young, and eggs. 


2. Spotted sandpiper, young, and eggs. 


CONCEALMENT AFFORDED BY COLOR RESEMBLANCE AND LOW 
SQUATTING POSITION. 


(From exhibits in the U. 8. National Museum.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 6 


1. SCORPION FISH (GSCORPAENA PLUMIER!). 


A good example of background resemblance both in color and in pattern. (From Longley and Hildebrand, 
Carnegie Inst. Publ. 535, 1941.) 


- diag Ee aes lie 


2. PARROTFISH (SPARISOMA PACHYCEPHALUM) IN FOREGROUND AT RIGHT 


An example of blending with the background. (From Longley and Hildebrand, Carnegie Inst. Publ. 535, 
1941.) 


PLATE 7 


Friedmann 


Smithsonian Report, 1943. 


CHANGE IN COLOR AND PATTERN IN FLOUNDERS. 


S. Bur. Fisheries, 1941 


(From Mast, Bull. U 


These photographs are all of the same individual fish in an aquarium tank under which different card bottoms were placed. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 8 


1. Swimming fish with ‘‘normal”’ coloration. 


2. Resting fish changing its pattern to simulate surroundings. 


NASSAU GROUPER (EPINEPHELUS STRIATUS), A FISH THAT ALTERS ITS 
COLORATION IN KEEPING WITH ITS BACKGROUND WHEN AT REST. 


(Photographs by Longley and Hildebrand.) 


(1OGa9M “YM AG UMBIC,) “puNnoIsyoRq Ss} InoyyIM ‘gq {punoIsyoOeq [wUIIOU Sj JSUIese Sy 


(SNLYWIVdINWSS SNIYGQVYVHD) YSAO1d GSMOAN-ONIYN AHL NI SONIMYVAW SAI LAIMNaSI EG! AO) LSeese anal 


se a ie 


6 3ALV1d “‘uueuIpall{J—'¢ep6 | ‘yaoday uetuosyyIWIG 


(aeqa a “WAN Aq Waves) 
“(VLVINOVWOY SIN VIAH) DOYS 3ASYL NVITIZVYd AHL NI SONIMYVW SAILdINYSIC LNADSIGNIOD 


OL 3LV1d uueulpallJ—'¢p6| ‘qacday urtuosyziLug 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 11 


1. CONSTRUCTIVE SHADING. 


A, extreme dark and light tones connected by intermediate shading, giving a smoothly rounded appearance; 
B, extreme dark and light tones in contrasting juxtaposition, giving the effect of ridges; C, a leaf caterpillar 
(Epistor gorgon) with constructive shading giving the appearance of leaf vein ridges. (Drawn by W. A. 
Weber, after H. B. Cott.) 


<a ; 
aaa Won 


2. SHADOW ELIMINATION IN THE HORNED TOAD (PHRYNOSOMA CORNUTUM). 


A, the animal as it appears; B, a diagrammatic cross section to show the lateral flanges covering the shadow; 
C, a diagrammatic cross section of what the animal would look like if it did not have the lateral flanges; 
note the revealing shadow. (Drawn by W. A. Weber.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 12 


1. NEST OF WOOD PEWEE (MYIOCHANES VIRENS) SHOWING USE OF 
LICHEN FOR NEST CONCEALMENT. 


(From exhibit in the U. 8S. National Museum.) 


2. TRUMPET FISH (AULOSTOMUS MACULATUS) CONCEALED BY FORM AND 
COLOR-PATTERN RESEMBLANCE IN A SEA FEATHER. 


(Photograph from Longley and Hildebrand, Carnegie Inst. Publ. 535, 1941.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 13 


LEAF BUTTERFLY (KALLIMA PARALEKTA). 


A, the butterfly in flight, showing the conspicuously marked upper surface of the wings; B and C, butter- 
flies at rest, looking like the leaves around them. (From exhibit in the U. S. National Museum.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann 


LEAF INSECT, CHITONISCUS, SHOWING MORPHOLOGICAL AS WELL AS COLOR 
RESEMBLANCE TO THE LEAVES UPON WHICH IT FEEDS. 


(From exhibit in the U. S. National Museum.) 


PLATE 15 


—Friedmann 


1943, 


Smithsonian Report, 


INSECIS: 


National Mu 


BARK-RESEMBLING 


seum.) 


Sse 


sxhibit in the U 


From € 


( 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Friedmann PLATE 16 


1, Walking-stick insects on twigs. (Photograph by H. 8S. Barber.) 


2. Sargassum fish (Pterophryne histrio) in Sargassum weed. 
FINE EXAMPLES OF CONCEALMENT BY BODY FORM. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES! 


By Doris M. CocHran 


Associate Curator, Division of Reptiles and Batrachians 
U. 8. National Museum 


[With 23 plates] 


CONTENTS 
Page 
PEMA CUIOR see 2 ne eee mare ee ee eM es Se ekions 278 
FSD TSEME/ STs 2) C1 NS Seep gs le af deg ating ae ag aoa A ee ae a 279 
LU Sy Ey op i ME as a As, Cyaan tes pce gape tea ft Sa ee 279 
Ren MLEa SL Ales OL AT OEIC ee tet rl TEAL MN Bey 279 
A ELOY S Co bsp eANE Nae Se lg papper nse er fe Koa al a 280 
LY Sg Dy) 0) 2) ep ae a ai geet De GLEN coil eel 281 
ASO TEC] 202) ole ot) Uo oa ee ee AUR ere lf Be ra 284 
Theidiamondback) rattler’! te oe ee A 284 
Me DPiPpMiy EAU ean AKeS ee ar SES bt 285 
SERe WAT er IOC CARI SS 26) ety Sa RMD, oe 7 285 
SETETCOPPOLUGCRG ns Mert ser eet meme erm ee see 285 
Distribution of our poisonous snakes__..-__.___.__-_____- 286 
een Gale Mion Genes yates te ty nies Ae Col OND LATS 2 oS 287 
ThatinAMIer cme tet AN emirate ia ek ye SOS PRN 287 
A hetcoraliemanmen se too 05 Lhe niente Rr Aik ieee Qt 288 
Woes or ings ih ory ets cant. Ap CO RETEST Na a 288 
‘Wert glenmnnes sooty ce ear eat Ameen e Ar ur Fa ele Dead 288 
PURER POreRER Ue ent eae att cat a LAMENT RUG Foe 289 
herbishwiaater eset sme amin seen Meee IMA A 8 289 
The fer-de-lance or barba amarilla_____________._____ 290 
he palm vipers= eat el ey mammeemenntie. eee ORE Zo 2: 290 
SUVTEME obec oy Coy ath ial O(c) em RP Te Li a a 291 
eheihog=nosed: vipers! ss2 "Soe mee wet oe ee Eh OA). 291 
Oiler pit ViIPeES Ss Sle Se se eee end rere aaa se 291 
‘ihe: Teat-langed "srakest© (2 405 SV see yee Maite SEY Vien thay 292 
@hevellow-bellied sea snakes 2 Sc PE OT 292 
nue Wtoxicant hesded lizard). - ois. > TSAR Mea Gor 293 
UGE LOLs oa Sit Se ag Ee Me Den ae ps Rea Me Mas 8 PST iets EAA ae Mca 293 
ROTO Me ee NOEL HETH Acigies oct! 2 20 SES AME TEI Ae 294 
THecommMon viper and its allies: 2. 202555 oo nee ie 294 
Orsmrsand henard sivipers 2s S<2 soe FS RO aR 295 
The asp, Lataste’s, and the long-nosed vipers____________- 295 
The blunt-nosed viper and its allies____._...._._________- 296 


1 Reprinted, with extensive revision and additional plates, from Smithsonian War Background Studies, 
No. 10, entitled ‘‘Poisonous Reptiles of the world: A wartime handbook.” 


275 


276 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Poisonous reptiles—Continued. Page 
The Old World—Continued. 

JGaCoht CGlovbay eed (yor ya PebaVol WEN e  Ce ee 296 

Whe Vipers ices he See a Ne a ee de pee 296 

The daboia, tic-polonga, or Russell’s viper._.._._------ 296 

The carpet or saw-scaled viper. _2.2....-...-.-.--=.- 297 

The ‘pit wiperatoc 2 So she hee Ae Be ee ere Ws na eae 297 

The mamushi and its relatives... 2.00 -..22.2222-8 297 

Bamboo snakes’and theirialliesi. 2 2-22 297 

Cobras:'and vkraites og So) se ee RO 298 

Indian or'spectaciedi cobra: 23.02 22-4. eee 298 

The king cobra or namadryad 2. 35 ae. eee 299 

gh Woe fe N RA Pe fh A RU URE OL LUN ian Pe EL 2 at 299 

The'sea SHAKES. STUD Se CNS Bl ee eo alias 300 

JX HC: Neng ee ea mts ios INN mine pe Ie Da NB NUS Wl BD ieee ep aM ye 3! 300 

RHEE S Be Soe eee SNe Ee Sc te For eh ee en SL ee 301 

The night adder or Cape’vipers | 2-2 oo eu a eas 301 

The pulivadder oF. ee ie ae ee DS ee he) al 301 

‘Phe THINOCELOS VIPCT 2252 Ae os be ee ee a eee 301 

he Gaboon: vipers ccs < eee se ie Sa a a eee 302 

‘heyhorned adders. 20 = see ts eels os cae ie a) ea 302 

The sand vipers 2. Lee ee Ee ae Ag a 303 

‘The ‘cobras and: their allies lee ae eee ee ee ee 8 Ce 303 

he ringhalsior/ spitting Ssmake eae sea ee ee ee 303 

The spitting or black-necked cobra______--_-_-_--------- 304 

Whe blAck cobras 2 52 se are ae ah ee 304 

ine: Eeyptian cobra or asp so 0 keyed lh el Oe 304 

he! Cape: CO ray eee 2 a Bs BN ls Spek DL pe ere 305 

he water cObrans. S25) 2a is oe Beat aa NL ee 305 

WENO) PARI D SS fo)8 2 a Pa ee MP bo ae es 305 

‘Phe:rear-fanged iene kes. 4.0905 oar of oir apis a WE ay 7, Ni 306 

Thevboomplang 22 ae ee eh am ae SN re 306 

Australia, New Guinea, and the South Pacific islands_____-.-_----- 306 

he; lack snakes shea se AGS ANS SONG So RAUL Ve sD Altace yeas 307 

The copperhead snake22 2 .eo8 Go 355s Dae ee See eee 307 

The brownsmake ee a2 ees ap ca a osc a ea A lee eee 308 

hey tiger snakes 2 2e 2204 ssi Wo Dy eb ciS e e e 308 

The deat hradderis a2 Orr k o> sa tSaen ie Sed sae a ey ees eee 308 

FPG BGs ST ikea ee AALS is eed ey rd ane 309 

Dangerous: nonpolsonous reptiles: 2224 a SU Oe A ge mS 309 

Worth vAaiericgy: iis Wisk hea oA eal lel lh a a 309 

the: Americanerocodile - 2 ob 22 es Si ake ee ae eee 310 

The ‘American alligators: 2c s22 2208 ber hee. 2 Sakae eens 310 

he alligator-snapper 225 - a eeee  e  e 310 

The common snapping turtle oes 0 ek a 311 

ToeGinn {A raver i age oe ss ep hes 1 gL EA re 311 

‘he Qnacond ae. hp hee, eke Saw eek) seal anaes ere 311 

The: Dog ss2 S22 oe COUR NS ol dipeg He se T e _ tote N RC 7 avi 312 

‘The Belize crocodile: 6°43 Cee ees eee ae eee eee 312 

The ‘Orinoeavieroece ies sy 2 cee 2 ee 2 Th cea ai a ea ee 312 

Whe @aynvdns 2 sis oe Sa a Ee ok ce ee ee 312 

Iguanas and other large lizards_____-_..--.------------------ 313 


Murope and northern Asia ® 3002 3 ee a ee 313 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—-COCHRAN 


Dangerous nonpoisonous reptiles—Continued. 


Appendix 


Selected bibliography 


—_ 


10. 


India, China, Japan, and Malaya 


Theyreticulatedipythonw-- sae 2 2a ee ee ee 
‘The Indiannpy thon cose 2a ape oe IRE a SS eS ce 


The Komodo dragon lizard 


Oihercmonitors lizards eee ee oe Robe a eye ES yk ae 
‘Dhersoft=shellediturtles sey: sae aen ee oan eee ey eee eta Pes 
The salt-water or estuarine crocodile_........-.-.-.-.--..-.-.. 
AHEASIAMNESS CLOCOGIIO Ra es eee ot ea RRO at ne NB Meee Ss 
A Dialers caQbeyeXey paren ee sah AM ese as ect at eae arse evel Jacag lated 8 tLe ae 
RG) Garvie ek ae 8 cy rteeepal li ieee pin es ed lp Niel oe hn oe UE 8 


The rock pythonp: fy. GO50 6 pene Bee. ced 8 ees re Ve Lap aier | oe eigl 


The waral and other monitors 


UBER NGTETCrOCOGI Gatiy sel rece sec pe en OL ae al 


The long-snouted crocodile 
The African soft-shelled turtle 


AVIStT Alina piel pilin!) G2.) pyri «oni! pyio Las eee aim Pe plereeyy iy Ao e+ 
Aheyciamon dtpy tO sb are ecg I ee ee 2 Ea 
Gime laiee Ama esa Oe ANE tS ee ne Ne ee pe 
IRN GYEN ROA aN Nae A = ea wap waa tie pet aby ei oi me. hy ot aha et 
(GOUNEIS tA OMI GO ee eae EN CARTORDER NINE I Are yA ee ON ee COI RN 
Thetsalt-water ¢rocodiler iis: 2112) 70). ol vipein eet Mas 


PNESCAMCULTEACMeMGe eee ee ee ok 


Antivenin and its preparation 


Directions for making scientific collections____.______.-.______-_-_- 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


{All except pl. 1, frontispiece, 


. Copperhead and coral snake. 
. 1, Coral snake. 


2, Timber rattler. 


. 1, Pigmy rattler. 


2, Copperhead. 


. 1, Tropical rattlesnake. 


2, Bushmaster. 


. 1, Fer-de-lance. 


2, Palm viper. 


. 1, Hog-nosed viper. 


2, Mussurana. 


. Mexican beaded lizard. 


, Common viper. 
Orsini’s viper. 
Daboia, or Russell’s viper. 


King cobra. 
, Banded krait. 


566766—44—_19 


PLATES 


Ie 


2, Indian, or spectacled cobra. 


follow p. 324] 


Night adder, or Cape viper. 
Puff adder. 

Rhinoceros viper. 

Gaboon viper. 

African sand viper. 

, Ringhals, or spitting snake. 
, Egyptian cobra. 

, Water cobra. 

, Mamba. 

, Black snake. 

Australian copperhead. 
Brown snake. 

Tiger snake. 

Death adder. 


Je 


Horner bh 


~ 


ho 


- 


. 1, American crocodile. 


2, American alligator. 


. 1, Alligator-snapper. 


2, Common snapping turtle. 


278 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


20. 1, Anaconda. 22. 1, Salt-water crocodile. 
2, Boa. 2, Indian python. 

21. 1, Galapagos land iguana. 23. 1, Rock python. 
2, Komodo dragon lizard. 2, Gould’s monitor. 


TEXT FIGURES 


Page 
1 -Venom: apparatus of rattles aes seen Riek beara ies poe ENN Le ee 283 
2. Yellow-bellied sea snake___-_-__________-_____ ER ENranSde HER LTTEACN Pa 293 


INTRODUCTION 


Among a world population of some 2,400 different kinds of living 
snakes, less than 200 are poisonous toman. These poisonous snakes be- 
long to the following families: The Elapidae, represented by coral 
snakes and cobras; the Viperidae or true vipers; the Crotalidae or pit 
vipers; the Hydrophidae or sea snakes; and the Colubridae. To this 
last-named family most of the harmless snakes also belong, the only 
dangerous ones being those having poison fangs in the back part of 
the upper jaw. Some poisonous snakes are extremely useful in de- 
stroying rats and mice, but this desirable trait is offset near in- 
habited districts by their occasional biting of human beings or 
domestic animals. 

The chances of being bitten by poisonous snakes are exceedingly 
small. Only about one-sixth of our native snakes are poisonous. 
One person out of every fifteen bitten receives the bite while handling 
or “playing” with a poisonous snake. “In the United States alone 
automobiles kill more than 30,000 people annually, snakes probably 
160; for every person killed by a snake, 200 die in automobile acci- 
dents.” ? This does not mean that vigilance should be relaxed in 
traveling through snake country. On the contrary, it is well to 
recognize the presence of a very real danger as the best means of 
avoiding it. 

The distribution of poisonous snakes throughout the world is now 
fairly well known. They do not live in the extremely cold regions of 
any country; thus in North America they are known only as far 
north as the southern borders of Canada. Since the continents to the 
south of the Equator lie much farther from the Poles than do those 
to the north, we find poisonous snakes over the whole of Africa and 
in most of South America, except on the high mountains and in 
southern Patagonia. An extremely hardy viper occurs in Scan- 
dinavia to within the Arctic Circle; this is the record for cold en- 
durance among the venomous snakes. The Polynesian islands are 
free of land-dwelling poisonous snakes. So are Madagascar and 
New Zealand, although both of them are relatively close to areas 


2 Pope, Clifford, Snakes alive and how they live, p. 171, 1937. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 279 


where many very dangerous kinds prevail. The Azores, and the 
Canary and Cape Verde Islands near Africa, have none. The large 
and small islands of the West Indies lack poisonous snakes, except 
Trinidad, Tobago, Martinique, and St. Lucia. In the Temperate Zone 
their absence from Ireland has often been noted. They are also 
missing from Iceland, the Shetlands, and the Orkneys. 

The true vipers (family Viperidae) are found only in the Old 
World, and the one dangerous rear-fanged colubrid (the boomslang) 
is confined to Africa. The crotalids are found in the New World and 
in Asia, while the elapids occur in all the continents except Europe. 

Snakes and lizards are both members of the same order—Squa- 
mata—in the class of reptiles. 

Only 2 kinds of lizards out of nearly 3,000 now known to science 
have proved to be poisonous, with 1 other very rare species suspected 
to be so. The 2 poisonous lizards live in the southwestern United 
States and Mexico. The 1 suspected of being poisonous occurs in 
Borneo. 

The other living members of this class—turtles, tuatara, and 
crocodilians—are not equipped with venom glands. 

Some of the larger nonvenomous reptiles are potentially dangerous 
to man because of their lacerating bite or their muscular strength. The 
crocodile in particular has a bad reputation, while the crushing power 
of anacondas and pythons is traditional. Less spectacular because less 
widely known is the alligator snapping turtle found in the Mississippi 
River and other water systems of some of the southern States. The 
soft-shelled turtles, one genus of which is found in North America, 
and others in Asia, while usually very shy, have exceedingly strong, 
sharp jaws, which can administer a severe bite to anyone rash enough 
to get near the darting head. 

Not all giants among the reptiles are savage, however. The Gala- 
pagos turtles, some of which easily tip the scales at 300 pounds, are 
noted for their docile temperament. 

Many reptiles are of great economic value to man, either because 
their hides, flesh, or eggs are useful, or because their food consists 
of rats, mice, and other pests which annually destroy vast quantities 
of agricultural and other products. A great many of the smaller 
kinds of snakes are roden eaters. Through lack of space, only a few 
of the larger snakes are mentioned in this paper. 


POISONOUS REPTILES OF THE NEW WORLD 


THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


Every one of our 48 States has at least one kind of poisonous snake 
living within its boundaries. All except the most northerly have 
several kinds. The Gila monster, our only poisonous lizard, brings to 


280 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


nearly 40 the total number of kinds of poisonous reptiles in our 
country. 

The poisonous snakes of the United States belong to two major 
groups: the Elapidae, represented by coral snakes, which are related 
to the cobras of Asia and Africa, and the Crotalidae or pit vipers, 
represented by the true rattlesnakes, the pigmy rattlers, the massa- 
sauga, the copperhead, and the cottonmouth. 

The venoms of the different species of poisonous snakes differ to a 
greater or less degree. 

All venoms are complex mixtures containing several toxic elements. In gen- 
eral these may be divided into two main groups—the neurotoxins and the 
haemotoxins. Apparently all snake venoms include the neurotoxic factors, and it 
is these which usually bring about the death of the snakes’ victims. They have 
several different actions against nerve tissues, most important of which is their 
effect against the nerve centers controlling respiration. Death following snake 
bite most often results directly from respiratory failure. The venoms of the 
cobras, coral snakes, and their allies are almost purely neurotoxic, but viper 
and pit viper venoms usually attack the circulatory system as well. The common 
effects of the haemotoxins in such venoms are destruction of red blood cells and 
weakening of the walls of the smaller blood vessels, particularly the capillaries. 
(Nigel Wolff.) 

THE CorAL SNAKES 


The first group, family Elapidae, is very similar in build to most 

harmless snakes. The poison apparatus consists of short, vertical 
fangs requiring a full bite for the injection of the poison. There 
is no very conspicuous enlargement at the base of the jaws to give a 
triangular shape to the head supposedly characteristic of poisonous 
species. 
It has been repeatedly asserted that the mouth [of the coral snake] is so small 
that it cannot bite as well as the other poisonous snakes. This, however, is some- 
what of amistake. Externally and superficially the head * * * appears very 
short and narrow, and the opening of the gape but of slight capacity. An ex- 
amination of the skeleton, however, shows the skull to be comparatively large 
and rather elongate, especially the cranial part, which occupies fully two-thirds 
of the total length of the head. The articulation of the lower jaw, which is cor- 
respondingly lengthened, is consequently far enough back to permit, by means 
of the elasticity of the ligaments, the opening of the mouth quite out of pro- 
portion to the external aspect of the snake.* 

Since the coral snake is often sluggish and “gentle” when handled, 
some persons have said that it can hardly be induced to bite. It some- 
times will bite very suddenly and unexpectedly, however, but as the 
wound appears small and unimportant, the necessary treatment is 
often neglected, with serious results to the victim because of the 
highly toxic character of its poison. 


3 Stejneger, L., Poisonous snakes of North America. Ann. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1893, 
p. 355, 1895. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 281 


The coral snake is attractively colored with bright red, yellow, and 
black transverse rings on its body (pl. 1, frontispiece, and pl. 2, fig. 1). 
The snout from the eyes forward is black. If in killing the snake the 
pattern of the head is lost, the coral snake may be identified by its 
black rings being bordered on each side by a yellow ring, while in 
the harmless species it is the yellowish ring which is bordered on 
each side by a black ring. There are three subspecies of Micrurus 
fulvius in the United States, the typical form occurring from south- 
eastern North Carolina south throughout Florida and the Gulf States 
to the Rio Grande, north in the Mississippi Valley to Arkansas; the 
subspecies barbouri in extreme southern Florida, and the sub- 
species tenere from Mississippi to northern Tamaulipas, Mexico. An- 
other kind of coral snake, now called Micruroides euryxanthus but 
for many years considered a full species of the genus Micrurus, is 
said to occur in New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. 

Our North American kinds seldom exceed 3 feet in length, but 
numerous larger relatives are found in South and Central America, 
where they are a recognized menace. Our species feed upon other 
snakes and small lizards. They burrow in soft ground or under logs 
and are hence seen more infrequently than their actual numbers 
warrant. They come out of their burrows at night or after a rain 
to search for food. Their eggs are deposited in decaying bark or 
damp soil, about seven in a clutch. The time of incubation, in this as 
in all other egg-laying snake species, depends upon the heat and 
moisture ; it is usually about 3 months. 


THE PIT VIPERS 


The pit vipers, so called because of the small pit between the nostril 
and the eye, representing the Crotalidae, are much more numerous 
than the Elapidae since about 35 different species and subspecies are 
recognized within the United States. The rattlesnakes need no intro- 
duction, for they are known by reputation, if not by actual contact, 
to everyone in this country. The presence of a whirring rattle on the 
tail tip is their spectacular and distinguishing characteristic. The 
rattlesnakes are divided between two genera, Crotalus and Sistrurus, 
the first having many small scales on top of the head, the second 
with several large regular shields in that region. To the genus 
Sistrurus belong the massasauga and the pigmy rattlesnakes, whose 
venoms are less to be feared because of the small size of these snakes. 

Venom and bite-—While we usually speak of the “bite” of a pit 
viper, it is much more accurate to refer to it as a strike. The snake 
strikes usually from an S-shaped position, the posterior third of 
the body remaining on the ground to give necessary leverage for 
the blow. Hence two-thirds of the body length is the maximum 


282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


striking distance. None of our North American pit vipers actually 
jumps off the ground in making an attack. As the head is thrown 
forward for the blow, the mouth is opened, and the fangs, which are 
attached solidly to the movable maxilla, are brought into striking 
position as shown in figure 1. The venom is contained in a large 
specialized salivary gland near the angle of the jaw (its presence is the 
cause of the conspicuous triangular widening of the snake’s head pos- 
teriorly), and this venom runs forward through a tube connecting 
with the hollow fang in the upper jaw. The comparison to a hypo- 
dermic needle is very appropriate. When the snake’s fangs strike 
the victim’s flesh, the weight of its body drives them deep, and they 
leave their load of venom or are sometimes broken off and stay in 
the wound. The loss of its functional fangs does not long incon- 
venience the pit viper, however. There is a series of developing teeth 
at the base of each fang, and whenever a fang is shed or breaks off, 
a new one comes forward to take its place in a few days. To render 
a pit viper “harmless” by removing all these fangs thoroughly would 
necessitate cutting into the upper jaw so deeply that the snake would 
probably die. Every pit viper has also some solid teeth with which 
to hold the prey and prevent it from wriggling away while the snake 
is attempting to swallow it. The amount of venom delivered at one 
strike varies greatly even in the same individual. If the snake is in 
poor condition, if it has already struck recently, or if the fangs have 
to penetrate layers of hide, fur, and fat—or in the case of human 
beings, clothing or shoes—the amount of poison that may be injected 
is correspondingly less than normal. The diamondback rattler of the 
southeastern United States is our largest species and hence has 
probably the longest fangs—about three-quarters of an inch in a 
6-foot snake. The fangs at rest are covered by whitish folds of skin, 
very apparent when the snake opens its mouth. 

Additional facts about pit vipers.—It is a popular but erroneous 
belief that a rattler’s age is told by counting the “rings” in its rattle. 
The fact is that a segment is formed every time the growing snake 
sheds its skin; hence a young snake acquires three or four during its 
first year of life, and about as many more each year during its later 
years. By the time it has reached nearly maximum growth, it often 
accidentally breaks off most of its rattle—which is composed merely of 
segments of a dried, horny substance—so that a very large snake pre- 
sumably several years old may have only one or two segments. Circus 
men overcome that difficulty by fitting several rattles onto a big 
snake’s tail to make it more imposing to the trusting audience. 

The colors of most pit vipers are much duller than those of the 
brilliant coral snake previously discussed. Rattlers especially are in- 
clined to dull, dark tones as they reach adulthood, and this effect is 
increased by the keels of the lusterless scales which further roughen 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 283 


their skins. A diamond or chevron in brown or gray on a light tan 
ground is often the basis of the color pattern. The diamondback has 
an unusually distinct diamond design ; hence its name. 


VENOM OUCT VENOM oOvuCcT 
NICAT 
cony Cc. § 


" 
Pia 


as 2 PHANTOM SKETCH OF TONGUE 
ee ee (HOT EXTRUDED WHEN BITING) 


MAXILLA 
POISON FANG 
DENTARY 


PALATINE 
PTERYGOID 
SQUAMOSAL 
QUADRATE 


ECTOPTERYGOID 


apse Oi: TEETH 


PALATINE TEETH 
MANDIBLE 


MANDIBULAR 
TEETH 


FIcurEe 1.—Upper, diagram cf venom apparatus of rattlesnake. Lower, diagram 
of bones involved in biting mechanism of rattlesnake. A, jaws closed, fang 
folded back against roof of mouth; B, jaws open and fang erected for biting. 
(From The reptiles of Ontario, by E. B. S. Logier, 1939.) 


The pit vipers are so named from the presence of a small pit in the 
side of the head between the eye and nostril. This pit is filled with 
sensory cells the function of which is still somewhat in doubt. It is 


284 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


believed from experiment that the cells in the pit enable the snake to 
distinguish between cold and warm air currents and hence to know 
when some warm-blooded animal approaches it in the dark—a useful 
function since most pit vipers are nocturnal and do their hunting at 
night. Their food consists of anything small enough to be swal- 
lowed—birds, mammals, sometimes fish, frogs, snakes, lizards, or small 
turtles—each species showing a “preference” for some of the food 
items that it normally can obtain in its own particular environment. 

Most pit vipers are viviparous—that is, their young are born (hav- 
ing developed in the eggs retained within the mother’s body) instead 
of being hatched from eggs as is the case with the coral snakes. Young 
snakes begin to look for food very soon after birth. Their skin is 
usually shed within a few days for the first time. 


The timber rattler. 


First of the more common species on the list for easterners is the 
timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus, pl. 2, fig. 2), also called the 
banded or black rattler. 


Distribution of this rattlesnake in the Northeastern States is associated with hills 
and mountains of moderate height, on which there are broken ledges with large, 
loose fragments on the slopes and top. These flat fragments may be a foot or 
more in thickness and from a yard to 6 or 8 feet in length, sloping back into 
a fissure, the bottom of which may be covered with soil or leaves, and which pro- 
vides a position of security during storms. It is the common habit of rattle- 
snakes to coil under the edge of these rock masses, protected from the too hot 
summer sun, and ready to quickly retreat if disturbed. If the intruder goes on 
his way, the snake may lie in its motionless coil, without sounding the rattle, 
thus seeking to escape notice. Near these natural homes are specific crevices 
or “dens,” where rattlers that have roamed over a considerable area during the 
summer congregate each fall preparatory to deep penetration and hibernation, 
beyond the frost line. During the late summer the females return to such places 
and here the young are born, with a natural instinct to return to this specific 
area each year for winter shelter * * *.4 


The diamondback rattler. 


The diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus), already men- 
tioned, lives in wooded areas of the Southeast, especially among the 
scrub palmetto of the sea beaches in Florida. “It is not a swamp spe- 
cies, although it may frequent woods close to water and does not hesi- 
tate to swim across small bodies of water. In the coastal strips it 
crosses fair-sized tide pools and has been noted several miles from 
shore, where it has been accidentally carried by the currents. It is also 
found among the keys. When adult, its food consists largely of 
rabbits,” ° and sometimes of quails. There is a western diamondback 
which is said to cause twice as many deaths as the eastern species. The 


4 Ditmars, R. L., Snakes of the world, pp. 114-115, 1934. 
5 Idem, p. 113. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 285 


prairie rattlesnake and the water moccasin constitute the other species 
which together with the diamondbacks are responsible for about 95 
percent of deaths by snake bite in this country. 


The pigmy rattlesnakes. 

“The bites of pigmy rattlers and massasaugas (genus Sistrurus) are 
practically never fatal to adults, except possibly through septic com- 
binations. These rattlers are our least poisonous snakes, for of 20 
cases on record, none ended fatally.”® They frequently feed upon 
frogs. The massasauga is about 314 feet long. It frequents swampy 
places, although it shuns the actually wet places. It,is brownish or 
grayish, with chestnut-brown blotches on the back and a similar row 
on each side. The ground rattler (pl. 3, fig. 1) is seldom more than 
20 inches long, with a very minute rattle. It prefers dry areas with 
low vegetation. Its venom is particularly powerful, but the small 
amount of it injected at a bite is not known to have been lethal to 
man. 


The water moccasin. 

While the rattling of the rattlesnake is said to be a warning device, 
there are many pit vipers which have no rattle and hence cannot 
give the warning, unless the vibrating tail should strike against dry 
leaves or rushes, in which case a rattling sound is produced. By far 
the most dangerous of these in the confines of the United States is 
the water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus), or cottonmouth. 
Adults are dull olive or brownish above and paler on the sides, on 
which are indistinct blackish bands. Young specimens are brilliantly 
colored, usually of a pale reddish brown with bands of dark brown 
narrowly edged with white. The snake is one of the largest of the 
poisonous ones in this country, attaining a length of 6 feet, and it is 
also one of the most pugnacious in its wild state. Over most of its 
distribution it lives along streams and lakes or in swamps and is 
particularly abundant along abandoned rice ditches of the south- 
easterly and Gulf States. In captivity it feeds upon small rabbits, 
rats, birds, fishes, and frogs. 


The copperhead. 

Another rattleless pit viper is the copperhead (Agkistrodon moke- 
son, pl. 1, frontispiece, and pl. 3, fig. 2).. It can be recognized by its 
reddish-brown hour-glass-shaped marks crossing the back, set off by 
the light buff or reddish-tan ground color. It feeds upon small ro- 
dents, birds, and frogs. In the northern States it frequents rocky 
places, usually in the vicinity of moderately thick timber, marshy 
glades or hollows. In the South it is found on higher and drier ground 


® [Kellogg, R.], Poisonous snakes of the United States. Mimeographed circular Bi-571, 
U.S. Dep. Agr., Bur. Biol. Surv., February 1925. 


286 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


than are the timber rattler and water moccasin, which seem to prefer 
the swamps. A very large copperhead may be as much as 4 feet long. 
Baby copperheads, as well as the young of all other poisonous snakes, 
are venomous from the moment of birth. Although an adult copper- 
head secretes a relatively small amount of venom, a great many persons 
are bitten owing to the snake’s concealing coloration, which blends per- 
fectly with the ground covered with fallen leaves. A number of 
harmless snakes are similar in appearance to the copperhead and are 
often confused with it. Several species of watersnakes (Natriz) 
are characterized by brown markings on the back somewhat like the 
pattern of the copperhead. They are savage in disposition and the 
lacerating bite from the many short, solid teeth may lead to an infec- 
tion if not thoroughly disinfected. 


DISTRIBUTION OF OuR PoIsoNous SNAKES 


The matter of distribution cannot be explained in a few words. 
Sometimes no poisonous snakes occur in what seem to be the most 
favorable localities. Again they will be found in some special habitat 
perhaps near a town or city where repeated attempts to exterminate 
them have been made. The more northerly the locality, the fewer 
the species asarule. New England, for instance, has but two species, 
the copperhead and the timber rattler, and the former does not go 
north of central Massachusetts. The massasauga is added in the 
upper Mississippi Valley. The canebrake rattler, the diamondback, 
and the pigmy (two subspecies) complete the number of rattlesnakes 
in the Southeast. 

Crossing the Mississippi, we find a much more numerous assem- 
blage. The western diamond, the red diamond, the Pacific, and the 
prairie are among the most formidable. The western massasauga and 
the western pigmy rattler, the Texas rock rattler, the tiger and the 
black-tailed rattler, the speckled and faded and Great Basin rattlers, 
and the Willard’s, Price’s, and green rock rattler, each with its own 
particular distribution, occur through the west between Canada and 
and the Mexican border. One of the most peculiar, though not partic- 
ularly dangerous, is the little sidewinder, so called from its method of 
progressing through the sand. It has “horns” on its head, as the scale 
above its eye is enlarged and bluntly pointed, although it is not stiff 
enough to cause any damage, nor is it known to be used in self-defense. 
To this list must be added two forms of the copperhead, and the water 
moccasin. Each of these snakes thus briefly mentioned deserves a 
much fuller discussion than can be accorded in a paper of this size. 
. The best advice in dealing with supposedly poisonous reptiles is to 
leave them alone if possible. It is not at all a wise policy to exter- 
minate every snake in sight, since many harmless snakes are of actual 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 287 


economic value. The depredations of rats, mice, moles, and gophers 
are certainly controlled by the rodent-eating snakes, and such snakes 
even if poisonous should definitely be protected in any agricultural 


area. 
THE Gita MONSTER 


The final poisonous reptile under consideration is the Gila monster 
(Heloderma suspectum) or beaded lizard, occurring from the southern 
part of Utah and Nevada through Arizona into Sonora, Mexico. This 
and a related species in Mexico are the only known poisonous lizards. 
The Gila monster is heavily built and may grow to 2 feet in length, 
of which over one-third consists of the rounded tail. The entire 
animal is covered with coarse beadlike scales, salmon-red and black in 
color and forming a very beautiful blotched pattern. The head is 
blunt and massive, and the rather small legs seem inadequate to sup- 
port it. In the warm sun the lizard can become very active, however, 
and can move about with surprising agility. The clublike tail is a 
storage place for fat. When the lizard has been getting an abundance 
of food, the tail becomes swollen and heavy. In time of starvation, 
the tail shrinks decidedly, as the body of the lizard is nourished by 
the stored-up fat. The food consists of eggs of birds and reptiles and 
also probably any small animal that it can pick up. For a long while 
its ability to poison was doubted. 

The first confirmation of its poisonous nature seemed to be established by the 
discovery of grooved teeth, about 3-4 mm. long, four on either branch of both 
maxilla and mandibular. * * * The mandibular appears somewhat swollen, 
owing to the projection of its disproportionately large, elongated submaxillary 
glands, whose four separate ducts lead to the base of the above-described grooved 
teeth. * * * The arrangement of the teeth and of the glands makes us under- 
stand why opinions as to the poisonous nature of heloderma have differed so 
widely. When an animal seizes its victim only with the front teeth, or does not 
lie on its back while biting, none or very little of the buccal secretion may enter 
the wound. * * ** 

The Gila monster is known to turn over on its back when it is biting, 
and after it has once taken hold it chews on the wound. 


LATIN AMERICA 


While most tropical countries are abundantly supplied with poison- 
ous snakes, it is a surprising fact that they are totally absent on nearly 
all the large and small islands that make up the West Indies. On 
Trinidad and Tobago, allied faunistically as well as geographically to 
the mainland of South America, we find the bushmaster, a typically 
South American species, and the coral snake. On Martinique and St. 
Lucia as well as in Trinidad the fer-de-lance, a close relative of the 


7 Ditmars, R. L., The reptile book, p. 170, 1907. 


288 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


bushmaster, occurs. The mongoose was brought from India and intro- 
duced upon Martinique and Trinidad to kill snakes but has proved to be 
a pest in many instances where it turned to the destruction of fowl 
and other useful birds instead. 

Since many of the tropical poisonous snakes of this hemisphere range 
over both Central and South America, these species will be considered 
first, with the more important of the localized forms which are confined 
to a smaller area considered at the end of this section. 


THE CorAL SNAKES 


Like their relatives of the United States, the tropical coral snakes 
(genus Micrurus) are burrowing and secretive in their habits. Their 
brilliant coloring of red and black bands makes them easy to detect 
among the vegetation. Some nonvenomous snakes mimic their color- 
ing closely. Their bright pattern, much alike in all the species, has 
given them the common name of coralilla in Mexico, and of gar- 
gantilla (necklace) in Central America. While they are not ag- 
gressive if undisturbed, they will bite when stepped on or handled 
roughly. The larger kinds can inject a lethal dose of poison; the 
wearing of canvas leggings and leather shoes provides adequate pro- 
tection against coral snake bite when traveling in “snake country,” 
their fangs are not long. 

Two of the commonest South American coral snakes are Micrurus 
frontalis, found in southern Brazil to the Argentine, and Micrurus 
lemniscatus, occurring in the Guianas and Brazil. While these may 
appear “gentle,” they will treacherously turn and bite if they are 
carelessly handled. A length of 4 feet is fairly common. 


THE Pit VIPERS 
The rattlesnakes. 

The rattlesnakes (genus Crotalus) with which we have become so 
familiar in the United States have many close relatives in the lands 
to the south. The habits of these tropical rattlers are much like those 
of the rattlesnakes of our own country. Some of the species are 
very rare, only three or four ever having been found by naturalists 
even after the most assiduous collecting. Some are very small, and 
unable because of their short fangs to inject a lethal amount of poison. 
One of the larger kinds, Crotalus durissus terrificus (pl. 4, fig. 1), 
is the only member of the genus in South America, ranging from 
northern Venezuela to southern Brazil except for the wet valley of 
the Amazon. Its length is up to 7 feet. The venom has a largely 
neurotoxic action, in this respect being different from that of the 
northern rattlesnakes. It is more aggressive than most reptiles, 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 289 


since it deliberately glides forward toward the intruder. It carries 
its neck in an S-shaped lateral loop, in readiness to strike. It does not 
always use its rattle to give warning. While it sometimes coils, with 
its rattle buzzing steadily, more often it gives no more warning than 
a few quick side flings of the rattle, producing single harsh clicks. 
This is a sound well worthy of recognition in the higher ground of 
the Tropics, as it may be immediately followed by the serpent’s 
stroke with no further warning. This serpent has many common 
names, the most frequently used being cascabel, although in differ- 
ent parts of Brazil it is called boicininga, maracaboia, and boiquira. 
It is not found south of southern Brazil and the Chaco region of 
the Argentine. 


The cantil. 

The cantil (Agkistrodon bilineatus) takes the place of our water 
moccasin from central Mexico to Central America. The adult is 
black, with white or yellow markings. The head is dark, with a vivid 
yellow stripe along the snout and another on the upper lip. It is 
semiaquatic in habit and attains about the same size as the related 
copperhead—less than 4 feet. Its poison is highly toxic; fortunately 
it does not seem to be abundant. 


The bushmaster. . 

The most feared of tropical American snakes is the bushmaster 
(Lachesis mutus, pl. 4, fig. 2), the giant among the pit vipers, which 
attains a length of about 11 feet, although such large individuals are 
very rare. It is also exceptional among the pit vipers because it lays 
eggs, all the others bearing the young alive. It is aggressive in charac- 
ter, and while the vibrating of its tail on the ground when the snake 
is uneasy makes a loud buzzing sound somewhat like that produced 
by the warning rattle of the rattlesnake, the bushmaster holds its 
ground and usually comes near to the intruder. Its teeth inject a 
large quantity of venom, and by their length (1% inches in a snake 11 
feet 4 inches long) they can penetrate very deeply through coverings 
that would render the striking of an ordinary-sized snake practically 
harmless. The body is yellowish or reddish brown with a series of 
dark blotches, wide on the back and narrow on the sides—a pattern 
that blends in very well with the surrounding vegetation. Its skin is 
very rough. It is long and slender, hence well able to travel through 
underbrush, and its lance-shaped head gives it an extremely sinister 
appearance. It is found from Nicaragua through southern Central 
America and South America, also in Trinidad. It is called sirocucu 
and mapepire in some places where it occurs. It lives in damp forests 
in holes made by other animals. 


290 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The fer-de-lance or barba amarilla. 

The fer-de-lance (Bothrops atrox, pl. 5, fig. 1) is another tropical 

snake which it is well to avoid, as the effects of the poison are said to be 
dramatically sinister and rapid, the action being largely haemolytic, destroying the 
red blood cells, breaking down the walls of the carrying vessels, and producing 
great extravasation. * * * The tissue about the wound is practically dis- 
solved by rapid necrosis. These effects are, however, effectively neutralized 
by serum produced by the several research laboratories in the tropics.* 
Its length may be over 8 feet. The ground color is variable, from 
gray to brown or reddish, with a row of dark, light-edged triangles 
down each side, the tips of the triangles reaching the center of the back. 
Its body is relatively slender, setting off the lance-shaped head. Since 
it is not uncommon for a female fer-de-lance to produce 60 to 70 young 
ones in a litter, the abundance of this species is readily understood. 
The range extends from southern Mexico through Central America 
and northern South America, including the islands of Martinique 
and St. Lucia in the West Indies. Some of its other native names are 
jararaca, terciopelo (=velvet snake, Costa Rica), and tomigoff (Pana- 
ma). It is especially dangerous to laborers on sugar plantations, as 
it: is attracted there in numbers by the rats which make their homes 
in such places. 


The palm vipers. 

These small snakes (genus Bothrops ®) are arboreal in habit, being 
found in the low trees or bushes (pl. 5, fig. 2), sometimes coiled up 
where the base of a palm stem joins the trunk. Their prehensile tail 
helps them to cross from tree to tree when the branches nearly touch. 
Men pushing their way through thick underbrush should be careful to 
avoid being bitten in the face by these vipers. The green palm 
viper (B. bicolor) is leaf green above and below, and hence is nearly 
invisible among green foliage. Other species have green, brown, and 
yellow in the coloring, suited to concealment among branches and 
leaves. A few of the species have “eyelashes”—hornlike projections 
of the scales above the eye, of no known use to the snake. They are 
found in Mexico and Central and South America. Because of their 
often greenish or yellowish coloration and their habit of living in 
banana trees, these snakes, especially Schlegel’s palm viper (B. 
schlegelit) , are extremely dangerous to laborers on banana plantations. 
Although these snakes are only 2 feet in length, their proportionately 
large head and long fangs enable them to do more harm than their size 
would indicate, and fatalities have resulted from their bites. 

§ Ditmars, R. L., Snakes of the world, p. 184, 1934. 


® Some scientists now use the generic name 7'rimeresurus instead of Bothrops for the bulk 
of the Latin American pit vipers. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 291 


The jumping viper. 

Most poisonous snakes in striking keep the tail and posterior part of 
the body on the ground for leverage, but the jumping viper (Bothrops 
nummifer) is able to slide and strike in a way that carries its body 2 
feet forward. From a slight elevation it is able to jump for a yard. 
Since its length is somewhat less than a yard, it has several times the 
striking range of most pit vipers. Its body is stout, its head propor- 
tionately large, and its skin so rough that one is reminded of that of the 
bushmaster. The fangs are short, and the venom is of lower toxicity 
than in other species of Bothrops, so that this snake is not so greatly to 
be feared as are most of its relatives. It ranges through most of Cen- 
tral America into Mexico. Its native names are timba and mano de 
piedra, the latter coming from its supposed resemblance to the native 
implement used for grinding corn. 


The hog-nosed vipers. 

These three small terrestrial vipers (Bothrops nasuta, B. lansbergit, 
B. ophryomegas) may be recognized by their upturned snouts (pl. 
6, fig. 1). They live in Central America and southern Mexico, with 
two species extending into northern South America. Their native 
names are chatilla or tamagé. Some of these savage little vipers strike 
with such force that they slide a few inches on smooth level ground 
and sometimes jump forward several inches, although this habit is 
not so characteristic of them as it is of the true jumping viper 
(Bothrops nummifer) mentioned above. They grow to about 2 feet 
in length. 


Other pit vipers. 

Maximilian’s viper (Bothrops neuwiediz) of Brazil is of the fer-de- 
lance type and might be mistaken for that species. But it is usually 
smaller, and details of the triangular brown markings are different. 
Its native names are jararaca and urutu. It ranges into northern 
Argentina and Paraguay. The name jararaca is also applied to other 
closely related kinds of poisonous snakes. 

One of the most poisonous of all the pit vipers is the island viper 
(B. insularis), which is confined to a small rocky island barely three- 
quarters of a mile in extent lying 40 miles southwest of the Bay of 
Santos, Brazil. Since there is little else on the rock for snakes to eat 
except the small birds that nest there, this snake’s highly toxic bite evi- 
dently insures the death of the bird before it has been able to flutter far 
enough to fall into the sea and so be lost. 

While most people do not associate beauty with a poisonous serpent, 
B. alternatus, commonly called urutu, has one of the handsomest pat- 
terns of all the pit vipers—a series of dark brown crescentic marks on 


292 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


each side, on a pale cream ground color. It grows to 5 feet in length, 
with a thick, heavy body. It occurs in southern Brazil, Paraguay, 
Uruguay, and the Argentine. 

The value of using scientific rather than common names for species 
is well illustrated by my attempt to give the Indian names for some of 
the foregoing snakes. The word jararaca is used for several different 
kinds of pit vipers. The same is true of urutu. Likewise it will be 
seen that the name copperhead is used for an Australian snake of a 
different family from that of the copperhead found in the United 
States. 


THE REAR-FANGED SNAKES 


Some of the opisthoglyph (=back-fanged) snakes ( Oxybelis, Pseudo- 
boa) have taken to an arboreal existence. These are less dan- 
gerous to man because of the small amount of poison, its relative 
mildness, and the fact that the teeth placed in the rear of the mouth 
do not always make good contact with a victim’s flesh. Most of 
these snakes are slender and whiplike in body, with elongate heads 
and large eyes. Some are green, others grayish or brown in color. 
The green whip snake, Oxybelis fulgidus, is light green with a lemon- 
yellow stripe on the sides. When frightened, it stiffens its neck and 
slowly waves its head from side to side to imitate a stem blown by 
a breeze. Its food consists of lizards, which are very susceptible to 
its poison. 

The mussurana (Clela clelia, pl. 6, fig. 2) is a large, heavy-bodied, 
terrestrial serpent which uses its constricting powers as well as its 
poison to subdue its prey. Its chief food consists of other snakes, 
among them being the deadly fer-de-lance—not deadly at all 
to the mussurana, which is unaffected by the poison or the injuries 
of the fangs. Unfortunately, the mussurana is rather rare through- 
out its rather wide range—Guatemala through Brazil. Most of the 
natives know of its snake-eating habits, and so it is seldom killed. 
Brazilian specimens are blue-black all over, while Central American 
ones are white beneath. Young ones are said to be coral red. 


THR YELLOW-BELLIED SEA SNAKE 


Only one species of sea snake (Pelamydrus platurus, fig. 2) has 
crossed the Pacific Ocean from its native home off the coast of Asia. 
This snake is compressed, with very small scales and no enlarged 
plates across the ventral region. Its back and upper sides are rich 
brown to black, sharply set off from the bright yellow ventral colora- 
tion. Its tail is compressed and rounded at the tip like a paddle and 
acts as a rudder. While this species seldom exceeds 3 feet in length, 
some of the other species (to be discussed in the section on Asia) 
are more than twice as long. Fatalities from its bite have been re- 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 293 


ported, but as a rule sea snakes are disinclined to bite, although some 
are equipped with very deadly poison, and are said never to attack 
bathers. Their food consists of fish and other small marine or- 
ganisms. They are now established along the west coast of Central 
America, especially in the Gulf of Panama. 


THE Mexican BEADED LIZARD 


The Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum, pl. 7) is the 
only other known species of poisonous lizard in the world, besides its 
relative, the Gila monster. It occurs from the central part of Mexico 
to the northern part of Central America. Its habits are very similar, 


——-wee* * 


FIGurE 2.—The yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamydrus platurus), entirely aquatic, 
and having a compressed, rudderlike tail. 


to those of its northern relative, but it is a little larger, being known 
to reach 30 inches in length, and its tail is proportionately longer. 
Its head is usually black, and its beadlike scales are colored with ir- 
regular patches of black and yellow. The very young lizard has 
vivid yellow stripes with bands of yellow on the tail. With age this 
regular pattern disappears, and some specimens turn nearly black or 
dark brown. The bite results in the same poisoning symptoms as 
that of the Gila monster. 


POISONOUS REPTILES OF THE OLD WORLD 


The family Viperidae (true vipers) is as characteristic of the Old 
World fauna as are the rattlesnakes of the New World. Some repre- 
sentatives of the Crotalidae, the family to which the rattlesnake be- 

566766—44——20 


294. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


longs, are found in southeastern Asia and the East Indies, however.” 
These are pit vipers, and differ from the true vipers which are likewise 
found in those regions by the possession of a complex pit on the side 
of the head between eye and nostril. Both these families differ from 
the following ones in having a head distinctly set off from the body by 
the swelling at the base of the jaws due to the poison glands, which are 
much smaller in the Elapidae and Hydrophidae. 

The family Elapidae, represented in the New World by the coral 
snakes, contains some of the most widespread and dangerous of Old 
World snakes—the cobras. Australia has about 80 kinds, while Africa 
and southern Asia boast of numerous species also. Elapidae have the 
head and body nearly continuous in outline, with no distinctly marked 
“neck” in most cases, in this respect resembling the harmless colubrine 
snakes, 

The Hydrophidae (sea snakes) are found near the coasts of southern 
Asia and northern Australia. Most of them hug the shore and dislike 
to swim far away from land. One kind has successfully crossed the 
Pacific and established itself on the west coast of Central America, as 
stated above, and this same species has likewise crossed the Indian 
Ocean to the eastern shores of Africa. 

Some rear-fanged snakes of the family Colubridae occur in Asia, but 
as their bites are not deadly to human beings, they will not be dis- 
cussed here. Some of the African species are potentially very dan- 
gerous to man, however. 

While no poisonous lizards are positively known from the Old 
World, an exceedingly rare lizard from Borneo possibly related to the 
Gila monster has been assumed to be poisonous. As yet no proof of 
this has been put forward. 


EUROPE AND NORTHERN ASIA 


The true vipers (family Viperidae) are the only poisonous snakes 
to be found in Europe and northern Asia. Some of their character- 
istics are a vertical pupil, relatively small size, and a zigzag dark 
stripe down the middle of the back more or less pronounced in Euro- 
pean species. These vipers fall naturally in groups of closely allied 
species which have much in common. 


The common viper and its allies. 

This snake (Vipera berus, pl. 8, fig. 1) , called northern viper or adder 
in part of its range, is the only poisonous species inhabiting the British 
Isles, where it is found in Scotland, Wales, and England, but not in 
Ireland. It likewise ranges over northern Europe at least to the 67th 

20Qne species, Agkistrodon halys, just reaches into eastern Europe near the Caspian Sea. 


u Except the pit viper Agkistrodon halys, a predominantly Asiatic species which extends 
westward to the Saltan Murat Desert and the Induski hills near the Caspian Sea. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 295 


degree in Scandinavia and across northern Asia to the Amur River and 
Sakhalin Island. Southward it extends to the Pyrenees, Apennines, 
andthe Balkans. Two distinct forms occur in different parts of Yugo- 
slavia, while another lives in northwestern Spain and Portugal. It 
prefers a cool climate, but in the north selects hills well exposed to the 
sun on which to bask, although it is partially nocturnal also. It eats 
any small living creatures of suitable size—mice, birds, lizards, frogs, 
salamanders, and slugs, while the very young ones feed on insects and 
worms. The young are born alive in August or September, and num- 
ber from 5 to 20 in a litter. Many fatalities from bites have been 
recorded, especially in France and Germany. Exceptional specimens 
are nearly 3 feet long, although 2 feet is the more usual length. 


Orsini’s and Renard’s vipers. 

Orsini’s viper (V. wrsinii, pl. 8, fig. 2), rather similar to the com- 
mon viper in appearance, is found in southern France, northern Italy, 
Hungary, and parts of Yugoslavia. It is not found with the common 
viper in any part of its habitat. It grows to a maximum size of 2 
feet. Its disposition is much less aggressive than that of the common 
viper, and in some places it is said not to make use of its poison appa- 
ratus since it feeds entirely on grasshoppers. Renard’s viper (V. 
renardt) is closely related, except that its snout is much more pointed. 
Its length does not exceed 2 feet. It is found in the Crimea and parts 
of eastern Russia, extending far into Central Asia. Its food consists 
of small mammals and lizards. 


The asp, Lataste’s, and the long-nosed vipers. 

These three European vipers can be recognized by their “turned-up 
noses,” that is, the tip of the snout is distinctly above the level of the 
top of the head. The asp viper (V. aspzs) is found in southern France, 
the Pyrenees and Apennines, and Yugoslavia. It likes hot, dry locali- 
ties, and lives in holes in rocks or in the earth. It is both nocturnal 
and diurnal, with food habits similar to those of the common asp. Its 
disposition is savage, and many accidents, some of them fatal, are 
caused yearly in southern France where it is very abundant. A sub- 
species occurs in Sicily and Calabria (southern Italy). lLataste’s 
viper (V. datasti) prefers stony, arid, and forested regions in Spain 
and Portugal, also in Morocco and Algeria. It is not known to ex- 
ceed a length of 2 feet. It climbs low trees in search of young birds. 
Its bite is supposed to be less dangerous than that of the asp viper 
and rarely causes the death of human beings or domestic animals. 
Its nose is likewise somewhat “turned up.” In the sand viper or long- 
nosed viper (V. ammodytes) the snout appendage is particularly evi- 
dent, giving it one of its common names. It occasionally grows to 
a length of 3 feet. It has numerous geographical varieties. The typi- 


296 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


cal form is found in Austria and the Balkan states. It likes dry, 
stony hills with low bushes, which it frequently climbs. Its poison is 
stated to be more active than that of other European vipers, so that 
fatal accidents to man are frequent. It is extremely abundant in some 
parts of Austria and is said to be the commonest of all snakes in Bos- 
nia and Herzegovina. A closely related form (Vipera ammodytes 
meridionalis) takes the place of the typical form in Greece and 
European Turkey. 


The blunt-nosed viper and its allies. 

The blunt-nosed viper (V. lebetina lebetina), also called kufi, is 
found on the island of Cyprus and in Europe on Melos (one of the 
Cyclades Islands), and has an extensive range in Asia and Africa. 
Some poorly defined varieties occur, among them a form called wan- 
thina from Asia Minor and others named mauritanica and deserti from 
Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. Large examples are 414 or 5 feet long. 
They live in rocky regions and are nocturnal in habit. 


INDIA, CHINA, JAPAN, AND MALAYA 


This region is very well provided with poisonous snakes. Represent- 
atives of the Viperidae (true vipers), Crotalidae (pit vipers), Elapi- 
dae (cobras and kraits), Hydrophidae (sea snakes) and Colubridae 
(colubrine snakes) are found here, comprising examples of all existing 
families containing dangerous poisonous snakes. The most spectac- 
ular are the cobras, although the daboia (or Russell’s viper) is one 
of the commonest and deadliest snakes of India. 


THE VIPERS 


Although the total number of species known from Asia is not large, 
this family (Viperidae) represents some of the most dangerous of all 
poisonous snakes. 


The daboia, tic-polonga, or Russell’s viper. 

This beautiful serpent (V. russellii, pl. 9, fig. 1), more than 5 feet 
in length at its maximum, is pale brown with 3 longitudinal series 
of yellow-bordered black rings enclosing spots of chocolate brown. A 
very loud warning hiss is given when the snake is disturbed. It will not 
strike until considerably irritated. The venom is secreted in large 
quantities. The snake is found nearly everywhere except in dense 
jungle, preferring open, sunny regions. It is nocturnal in habit and 
feeds by choice upon rats and other small mammals. It is found in 
India, Ceylon, Burma, Siam, the Malay Peninsula, and southern Yun- 
nan in China. The period of gestation is more than 6 months, the lit- 
ter of about 30 young being born usually in June and July; they are 
less than a foot long. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 297 


The carpet or saw-scaled viper. 

This little snake (#’chis carinatus) burrows in the sand to hide, hence 
prefers sandy places throughout its range through Syria and Persia 
into India. Its common name, “saw-scaled,” is given by reason of the 
fine, sawlike “teeth” down the center of the lateral scales. It reaches 
a length of 2 feet, but in spite of its small size it is very fierce and 
aggressive. 

A related species, /’. coloratus, is known from Arabia and Palestine. 

Another small viper of a different genus (Azemops feae) grows to a 
length of 2 feet. It is extremely rare, only about four specimens ever 
having been collected in Upper Burma and in southern China (Szech- 
wan and Kiangsi). It resembles a harmless colubrine snake in ap- 
pearance, being blackish above with 15 narrow transverse white bands. 
Nothing is known about its venom. 


THE PIT VIPERS 


Asiatic members of this family (Crotalidae) used to be considered as 
part of the family Viperidae. A more correct estimate of their dis- 
tinctness is obtained by putting them into the family of which the 
New World rattlesnake is the representative. The Old World cro- 
talids, however, do not have any rattle. The following belongs to the 
same genus as do the copperhead and moccasin described under North 
American poisonous snakes. 


The mamushi and its relatives. 

This snake (Agkistrodon blomhoffiz) is restricted to the Japanese 
islands, although close allies are found on the Asiatic mainland. Aver- 
age specimens are about 20 inches long. The pattern consists of a 
series of dark brown rhomboid blotches on each side near the center of 
* the back, separated by a pale grayish band which lightens nearly to 
white next to the dark blotches. Some specimens are much darker. 

One of the most poisonous species of the genus is A. rhodostoma, 
found in Malaya. Its pattern is very striking—angular, dark brown, 
black-edged markings on a reddish-brown background. The snout 
is pointed, and as the posterior part of the head is widened, the ser- 
pent has a very sinister “lance head.” 

Some of the other species are very abundant. Agkistrodon halys 
and its relatives are the commonest poisonous snakes in China and the 
Himalayan region west almost to southeastern Europe. 


Bamboo snakes and their allies. 

- Some of the Asiatic members of the genus 7rimereswrus closely 
correspond to the palm vipers of tropical America. They are the 
arboreal species with prehensile tails and green coloration, such as 
Trimeresurus gramineus, the bamboo viper, and its relatives. Some 


298 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


species of 7'’rimeresurus are terrestrial, and these are also like Bothrops 
of the American Tropics. The head is always broad and distinct from 
the neck, while the body is not very stout in this genus. The arboreal 
species are particularly slender. The fangs are proportionately very 
long, and the bites are dangerous, although the venom is not quite so 
toxic as that of some of the true vipers. The habu (7’rimeresurus 
flavoviridis) grows to a length of 5 feet in the Riu Kiu Islands, and its 
bite is considered to be very serious. 


CoBRAS AND KRaITS 


These snakes (family Elapidae) are slender in build, with the head 
scarcely enlarged. Some species of cobras have more or less expansible 
“hoods” behind the head, produced by moving the ribs forward inside 
the loose skin. 


Indian or spectacled cobra. 

This snake (Vaja naja, pl. 9, fig. 2) is probably the best known of 
any of the poisonous snakes of Asia, as it takes more lives and is more 
feared than the others. It grows to be about 6 feet long, and is yellow- 
ish or dark brown in color, with a more or less spectacle-shaped black 
and white marking on the raised hood. Occasionally the hood has no 
pattern, sometimes there is a single spot. The cobra is nervous and 
excitable, spreading the hood and arching the neck when disturbed. 
It strikes with a forward sweep of its raised body, accompanied by a 
sharp hiss. This striking is not nearly so quick as the darting of a 
viper’s head, which strikes laterally from the bent neck. The cobra 
becomes irritable, sometimes gliding forward to attack its enemy, but 
there is no deliberate rush, and the snake can be held off with a light 
stick. When it bites, it retains its hold just as the coral snake does, 
since the fangs are relatively short, and a larger amount of poison can 
enter the wound with the longer contact. The cobra feeds on rats, mice, 
and frogs by choice, and often takes up its residence in the dark corners 
of a native hut in order to prey upon the rodents attracted to human 
habitations. This snake is accountable for more deaths from snake 
bite than any other species. It is impossible to state accurately just 
how many people in India die each year from its bite. Owing to the 
natives’ habit of going bare-legged, especially at night, fatal accidents 
from cobra bite are unnecessarily numerous. On plantations where 
the natives are made to take precautions, and where serum is available, 
fatalities have greatly decreased. The Indian cobra and its very 
closely allied subspecies occur from the eastern shores of the Caspian 
Sea through Asia into China and Formosa, the Malay Archipelago, 
and the Philippines. 

Some cobras of this species have the habit of spitting venom at an 
intruder. One from Java was observed to eject poison in a spray 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 299 


from the partly opened mouth for a distance of 2 feet. Cobras that 
spit have likewise been reported from the Philippines, the Malay 
Peninsula, Burma, and Ceylon. There seems to be no report from 
China or mainland India west of Bengal of a cobra. spitting. 


The king cobra or hamadryad. 

The king cobra (Naja hannah, pl. 10, fig. 1), largest of all poisonous 
snakes, has been authentically reported as reaching a length of 18 
feet 4 inches. While its anterior ribs are elongated, it cannot spread 
a hood nearly so wide proportionately as that of its smaller relative. 
It feeds almost exclusively upon other snakes and probably ranks first 
as a wholesale destroyer of snakes, taking kraits and smaller cobras 
along with the harmless species. It occurs in eastern India, China, 
and the Philippines, as well as the Malay Archipelago. It is diurnal 
and lives in dense jungles near streams, sometimes climbing trees. It 
is said to be fearless and may attack human beings when disturbed. 
It lays from 21 to 33 eggs on a pile of leaves, and these eggs are 
guarded by the female. In captivity it displays an intelligence very 
unusual in snakes by learning, after a very few days, not tostrike its 
head against the glass of its cage. The color is olive or yellowish 
brown, often with black rings on the body. 


The kraits. 

The common krait (Bungarus candidus) grows to a maximum 
length of 4 feet. It is lustrous black or brown above, with narrow 
white bands across the back; below it is pearly white. It is one of 
the most numerous snakes where it occurs and likes to live near 
human dwellings, also in fields or low scrubby jungle near water. Its 
food consists almost entirely of other snakes, occasionally frogs, 
lizards, and small mammals. It is one of the most inoffensive of 
snakes, hiding its head beneath the ‘coils of its body and refusing to 
move when teased. Like the cobra, it lays eggs, 6 to 10 in a clutch, 
usually in soft earth. Experiments show that its poison is four to 
five times as virulent as that of the cobra. It has a wide distribution |! 
throughout India and the Malay Archipelago to Formosa and south- 
eastern China. Members of this genus can be recognized by their 
ridged backbone, on which there is a row of widened, enlarged scales. 
They are nocturnal in habit. 

The banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus, pl. 10, fig. 2) prefers jungle 
districts. It is ringed with yellow and black bands. It is even more 
sluggish than the common krait. In India the banded krait is re- 
stricted to the northeast, occurring no farther south than the state 
of Hyderabad. The common krait is found throughout peninsular 
India and is the only one south of the Ganges Basin. Their ranges 
overlap in Siam, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Java and Sumatra. 


300 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


THE SEA SNAKES 


The sea snakes (family Hydrophidae) live in the tropical parts of 
the Pacific and Indian Oceans. They occur along the coast of Asia 
from the Gulf of Persia to southern Japan, among the islands of 
Oceania, and to the coast of tropical Australia. AlJl the species but 
one stay close to the shallow waters near the coast, especially near river 
mouths. They feed entirely upon fish. Those sea snakes with the 
smallest heads and slenderest bodies limit their diet to eels. Some- 
' times on a calm day they are to be seen, often in hundreds, basking 
upon the surface of the water. Their structure is well adapted to an 
aquatic existence, since the tail has become compressed and rudder- 
like, while the ventral plates are much reduced in most of the species, 
appearing like the rest of the small scales covering the body. The 
poison of at least one of the species is known to be more deadly than 
that of the Indian cobra, while some are said to be only slightly poison- 
ous. They are not inclined to bite except when forcibly restrained and 
are said never to attack bathers in the water. Fishermen are sometimes 
bitten when they haul in a sea snake along with their net of fish, and 
sometimes fatalities result, because these fishermen do not think of 
seeking trained medical assistance. All sea snakes bear their young 
alive, 2 to 18 at a time, in tide pools and shallow flats of deserted 
shores. Few sea snakes exceed 4 feet in length, although examples 
of two species have been found measuring nearly 9 feet. 


AFRICA 


The Dark Continent has nearly as great an array of poisonous 
serpents as is found in Asia. While the king cobra of southern Asia 
claims the record of being the world’s largest poisonous snake, Africa 
has the distinction of having produced 2 kinds of spitting snakes— 
both cobras—which blow their venom into the face of the attacker 
from a distance up to 12 feet. Africa is the home of about 30 kinds 
of true vipers also, some of them very peculiar. 

Since sea snakes do not occur in Atlantic waters, it is only on the 
east coast of Africa that we find an occasional example of the same 
far-traveling species that occurs on the western coast of Central 
America. 

No pit vipers occur in Africa. The remaining family containing 
dangerous poisonous snakes is the Colubridae, of which one section, 
the rear-fanged snakes, is represented in Africa by the boomslang and 
a number of other snakes having poisons of varying degrees of toxicity. 

No poisonous snakes are found on the island of Madagascar. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 301 


THE VIPERS 


The night adder or Cape viper. 

As its name indicates, this snake (Causus rhombeatus, pl. 11, fig. 1) 
emerges at night to hunt for rats, mice, and toads. It is rather in- 
offensive, and unless hurt or frightened, it does not attempt to bite. 
It grows to be about 3 feet long. It is yellowish or gray in color, with 
a chain of dark, light-edged spots along the back, and smaller ones 
on each side. There is a dark chevron at the back of the head. The 
snake hides in rubbish heaps, rock piles, or shallow holes when not 
hunting. It frequently enters farm houses in its search for rodents. 
It is very common around Nairobi and extends from the Nile over 
the greater part of South Africa. The poison is not so highly toxic 
as in many of the other vipers. A peculiar anatomical feature is the 
extension of the poison glands into the neck to several inches behind 
the head. Another interesting peculiarity is that this snake and others 
of this genus lay eggs, while most of the other vipers are viviparous. 


The puff adder. 

This snake (Bitis artetans, pl. 11, fig. 2) is one of the most widely 
distributed in Africa, being found all the way from southern Morocco 
and the southern Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope, as well as in 
Arabia. It likes grassland, rocky regions, or light forests, especially 
near streams, but is not found in heavy forests or at very high alti- 
tudes. It grows to a length of 5 feet and is massive and bloated in 
appearance. The head is flat, and the nostrils are on top of the snout. 
The skin is deep golden yellow to orange brown, with regular chevron- 
shaped brown or black bars pointing backward, with a large dark 
blotch edged with light yellow on the crown of the head. It often 
lives around houses in order to feed on the rats and mice. When dis- 
turbed, it suddenly hisses by exhaling its breath. It is not aggressive, 
but when danger threatens it can strike with lightning speed. It 
is extremely prolific, a female laying up to 72 eggs at a time. Some- 
times the young are born before the egg is laid; more usually hatching 
occurs immediately after the fully developed egg is deposited. The 
bite is extremely dangerous, as the great length of the fangs causes 
the venom to be injected deeply into the tissue. This venom is highly 
active neurotoxically as well as haemotoxically, and because of the 
snake’s size a very large quantity can be injected at a bite. Cattle 
when grazing often get struck, and in the absence of an injection of 
the proper serum rapidly succumb. Another closely related snake, 
the Cape puff added (B. inornata), is restricted to South Africa. 


The rhinoceros viper. 
With a pair of horns jutting from its nose, its swollen, wicked- 
looking head, and its stout, ponderous body covered with rosy, purple, 


302 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


blue, yellow, or brown colors—brightest after the skin is shed—the 
rhinoceros viper (B2tis nasicornis, pl. 12, fig. 1) is a most astonishing 
creature. One would expect that these bright hues would make the 
snake very conspicuous, but on the contrary they render the serpent 
almost invisible in the swampy regions near streams, especially when 
its rough scales are caked with mud. Another common name, the 
river jack, is derived from its partially aquatic habits. It does not 
seem to grow longer than 4 feet. It is peculiarly placid and inof- 
fensive in disposition and is said to be most reluctant to bite, although 
the venom may be even more toxic than that of the following species. 
Its food habits are not known, although presumably from its aquatic 
habits it may add frogs, toads, and even fishes to the usual viperine 
diet of rodents. It is practically confined to the rain forest, including 
Liberia, the Gold Coast, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Portuguese Guinea, 
Belgian Congo, Uganda, and part of Kenya Colony. 


The Gaboon viper. 

This malevolent-looking serpent (Bitis gabonica, pl. 12, fig. 2) is 
very highly poisonous, and its prey is killed almost instantly by 
injections driven deeply with the long fangs. Its venom is partic- 
ularly deadly as far as mankind is concerned, for it contains both 
the normal viperine haemotoxic elements and powerful neurotoxic 
properties. It lives in heavy forests in West Africa. It is known 
to reach a length of 5 feet 8 inches, the fangs of such a monster meas- 
uring nearly 2 inches, and the body nearly 15 inches around. It is not 
usually aggressive and has the habit of deflating its body in a loud 
hiss. It feeds upon small mammals and birds, toads and frogs. There 
is a series of oblong buff markings on the back, surrounded by rich 
brown and purplish spots; the sides have irregular brown or purple 
spots, the points directed upward. The ground color of the skin is 
pinkish brown. The eyes are silvery. Sometimes there is a blunt or 
forked horn on the nose. 


The horned adders. 

Two of these small snakes (Bitis cornuta and B. caudalis) have one 
or more hornlike scales over the eye, hence their common name. 
They are no more than 114 feet in length but are extremely danger- 
ous in spite of their small size, owing to their habit of burying them- 
selves in the sand with only the head above, where they lie for hours 
watching for lizards and other small creatures on which they feed. 
They bite instantly at the bare feet of any native who may come 
near them, for they are practically invisible as they lie hidden. They 
occur only in the sandy areas of the southern part of Africa. 

The berg adder (B. atropos) as its name indicates, lives upon the 
mountain ranges throughout the whole of South Africa. It devours 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 303 


lizards and the young of ground-nesting birds, as well as insect larvae, 
and mice and rats. It is highly venomous. 


The sand vipers. 

The Sahara Desert harbors two species of sand vipers (Aspis cornuta, 
A. vipera, pl. 18, fig. 1) admirably adapted for life in dry desert sand. 
The ribs are capable of flattening the body, and there is a muscular 
arrangement that permits the snake to use the sharp edges of its 
flattened body to shovel sand over its back by a sort of wavy motion 
that permits the body of the snake to sink quickly below the surface, 
where it lies with the top of its head protruding. The eyes are above 
the general level of the top of the head, and are the same color as the 
sand, so the snake cannot readily be seen. Aspis cornuta has a small, 
sharp spine over each eye, which is lacking in A. vipera. While these 
two species resemble the horned adders of South Africa in habits, their 
ranges are widely separated, and there are several structural features 
to distinguish them. 

The carpet viper (Hchis carinatus), living in sandy regions of 
Africa north of the Equator likewise occurs in Arabia, Persia, and 
India, as mentioned above (see p, 297), unlike most other poisonous 
snakes of Africa, which are confined to their own continent. It some- 
times burrows to hide but is not confined to arid plains, since it is found 
on grassy, sandy plains or even in sandy forest land. It is less than a 
yard in length, marked with square brown spots on a cream or reddish 
ground color. It is nocturnal by habit and largely insectivorous. 


THE CoBRAS AND THEIR ALLIES 


Except for Australia, there are more different members of this family 
(Elapidae) in Africa than in any other part of the world. They are 
terrestrial, aquatic, or arboreal, and some kind is found in almost every 
region of Africa except the snow-clad mountain tops and sterile des- 
erts. The traveler has to fear not only the biting at close range but 
the “spitting” of venom from a short distance by some species. These 
will be considered first. 


The ringhals or spitting snake. 

This snake (Haemachates haemachatus, pl. 13, fig. 2) differs from 
other cobras in having keeled scales, so that the skin is not so shiny 
and sleek as that of its relatives. It is the smallest of the cobras, 
averaging about 4 feet in length. It is black with irregular cross bars 
of brown above, and the throat often has one or two white or yellow- 
ish bands, hence its Dutch name of ringhals (ring neck). The 
ringhals is aggressive when disturbed and will advance on a man or 
even pursue him for a considerable distance. The danger from this 
snake comes when people stoop toward the ground or rock pile where 


304 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


an alert ringhals may be lying, as the venom is ejected in two streams 
from the fangs, accompanied by the expulsion of air from the lungs, 
so that it. is sprayed in a fine shower for several feet. The entry of 
venom into the eyes causes intense pain, followed by inflammation 
and partial or total blindness. The eyes should be promptly and 
efficiently treated by washing at once with water and boric acid. The 
poison is not harmful when it falls on the unbroken skin. Eye- 
glasses or goggles afford adequate protection to the eyes against the 
spray of venom. Owing to its small size, the ringhals can throw its 
venom only about 6 feet. The bite of the ringhals is as deadly in 
proportion to its small size as that of any other cobra. Unlike most 
cobras, this snake produces its young alive, in litters of from 24 to 
60. It is common throughout South Africa. 


The spitting or black-necked cobra. 

The black-necked cobra (Naja nigricollis) also sprays its venom. 
Larger in size, it is even more formidable than the ringhals. It has 
a much wider range than the ringhals, being found from upper 
Egypt to Angola and the Transvaal, and is very common in some 
regions. It rears and “spits” upon shght provocation, and the venom 
is effective at distances up to 12 feet. The snake is 7 feet long when 
fully grown, and since it rears its head to a height of 3 feet from 
the ground, its attack is unexpected and overpowering. ‘The effect of 
the venom on the eyes of the victim is as disastrous as that of the 
ringhals. It is probable that if nothing were done to dilute or wash 
away the poison from the absorbent membranes of the eyes, blindness 
would result. Not enough of the poison seems to be absorbed to 
cause death, however. This snake may be lustrous black, olive, brown, 
or salmon pink in color. The black variety may show a pair of large 
crimson blotches under the hood when this is spread. The lighter- 
colored specimens have a black band across the throat, giving the 
snake its common name. 


The black cobra. 

This serpent (Naja melanoleuca) is slightly larger and heavier 
than the spitting cobra and looks somewhat like it. It does not spit 
venom but is quick to become angered and will rush to attack whoever 
comes near. It is confined to tropical Africa. The shiny texture of 
its skin distinguishes it from the dark variety of the spitting cobra. 


The Egyptian cobra or asp. 

This snake (Vaja haje, pl. 14, fig. 1) is the most widely distributed 
of the African cobras, being found in the whole of North Africa ex- 
cept in the coastal area of Algeria. It is especially numerous in 
countries bordering the Sahara and extends through East Africa all 
the way to Natal. Its color is dull brown, blending well with the 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 305 


hot, dry sand through which it prowls in search of rats and mice. It 
takes freely to water, where it devours frogs and toads. It grows to 
6 feet in length. By disposition it is very irritable, hissing and 
striking repeatedly at the slightest disturbance. 


The Cape cobra. 

The bad temper and ferocity of this snake (Naja flava) is well 
recognized in the south of Africa, where it occurs from Cape Colony 
to southern Tanganyika. It is found with several different colora- 
tions, individuals being yellowish, reddish, brown, or black. It 
frequently climbs trees in search of young birds and eggs. 

Several other species of cobras inhabit rather restricted areas in 
West Africa or Angola, some of them nearly “hoodless” but other- 
wise unmistakably cobras. 


The water cobras. 

These aquatic cobras (Boulengerina, pl. 14, fig. 2) live in Cameroon, 
the French and Belgian Congos, and in Lake Tanganyika. In the 
last-named place they stay around rocks, on top of which they bask 
in the early morning sun before taking to the lake. They grow to 
around 8 feet in length. Their degree of toxicity is not definitely 
known, but out of the water they are apparently not nearly so ag- 
gressive as the true cobras. Most of them have a black bar behind 
the head, followed by a number of black, usually light-centered spots. 
They probably seldom go far from water. 


The mambas. 

These deadly snakes (Dendraspis, pl. 15, fig. 1) are set apart from 
the other poisonous snakes of Africa by their extreme slenderness. 
This makes them admirably adapted for an arboreal existence, and 
their green or blackish coloration makes them almost indistinguishable 
among the stems of climbing vines. The head is narrow and the eyes 
large. The mamba looks rather like the harmless tree snakes of sim- 
ilar build found in the Tropics of both hemispheres. When it opens 
its mouth, however, there is no mistaking its poisonous character, for 
the large fangs are situated at the very front of the mouth. One 
species may be as long as 12 feet, a length unmatched anywhere among 
elapine snakes except by the king cobra of southern Asia. In strik- 
ing, it takes advantage of its length by doubling back its neck laterally 
and then lunging forward nearly half of the body length. Birds 
and small rodents comprise its food ; in searching for the latter it often 
takes to the ground and even enters native huts. There are several 
species of mambas now recognized, and in distribution they pretty 
well cover the southern part of Africa north to Abyssinia and the 
Niger. Mambas are said to be very sociable, several males and fe- 
males being frequently found inhabiting the same hollow in the trunk 


306 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


of a tree, a crevice among boulders, or a hole in a bank, and often 
sharing their retreat with a black-necked cobra. The eggs are laid 
in dense vegetation, and the young snakes take to the trees as soon as 
they are hatched. 

THE REAB-FANGED SNAKES 
The boomslang. 

The boomslang (Dispholidus typus) belongs to the rear-fanged 
group of the family Colubridae and in build is like one of our racers. 
The color varies greatly, from green through all shades of brown 
to black, the scales of the lighter-colored individuals often being edged 
with black. An adult may measure over 6 feet in length. Its name in 
Dutch means “tree snake,” and the trees are its natural environment. 
In sparsely wooded country it takes to the ground to hunt frogs, liz- 
ards, ground birds, caterpillars, and various insect larvae. The eggs 
are laid in decaying vegetation on the ground. When biting, the 
boomslang does not readily let go when once it has seized its prey. 
Unless its grip is complete, the fangs do not penetrate the flesh, since 
they are set halfway back in the upper jaw under the eyes. Fortu- 
nately this snake is very timid and will make off into the bushes at 
the slightest alarm. When it bites, however, its venom is very active, 
and the results may be fatal to human beings, as they undoubtedly 
have been fatal to dogs, oxen, and other farm animals. 


AUSTRALIA, NEW GUINEA, AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS 


Aside from the sea snakes of the family Hydrophidae which live in 
the waters of the northern coasts, Australia has but one family of pois- 
onous snakes, the Elapidae.? This family has an extremely large 
representation there, however, as 14 genera and 80 species are known. 
While a number of these are not considered dangerous to man owing 
to their small size, short fangs, and timid dispositions, the larger 
kinds are outstanding for their abundance, insolence, and high toxi- 
city. There is a great range in the toxic power among the really 
dangerous species. While the action of the poison is more largely 
neurotoxic—as in other members of the Elapidae throughout the 
world—there are some haemolytic effects as well. Most of the cases 
of snake bite in Australia could be avoided by the use of boots and 
leggings, as the snakes do not rear very far from the ground in at- 
tacking, and few are aboreal, hence the feet and legs of a pedestrian 
are in most danger of being struck by the fangs. 

New Guinea has, in addition to a liberal population of sea snakes, 
several representatives of some of the deadly kinds found in 
Australia. 


2 Australia is the only part of the world where a majority of the snakes are venomous. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 307 


There are no snakes in New Zealand, poisonous or nonpoisonous. 
The Hawaiian Islands are likewise devoid of them, as well as most 
of the scattered islands of the South Pacific. One genus of the fam- 
ily Elapidae, Ogmodon, is found in the Fiji Islands. Several of 
the same family occur in the Solomon Islands, while some of the sea 
snakes live in the surrounding waters. 


The black snake. 

This snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus, pl. 15, fig. 2), most abundant 
of the larger poisonous kinds of Australia, grows to a length of 6 to 7 
feet. The smooth scales are satiny blue black above, while below they 
are brilliant scarlet edged with black. The neck is slightly extensible 
so that a “hood” about half as broad as that of a cobra can be formed. 
When about to attack, it does not rear like the cobra, but instead raises 
the head only a few inches from the ground. It will not attack man 
unless trodden upon or cut off from means of escape. It prefers 
marshy places or streams and dives and swims well. It can stay under 
water for a long time, and from its habit of lying still at the bottom 
of lakes and streams it is dangerous to bathers. Its food consists of 
frogs, lizards, and small mammals and birds. The young are born 
alive in March, up to two dozen to a litter. During the winter the 
black snake hibernates in holes in the ground. It is found through- 
out Australia, except in the north, but does not occur in Tasmania. 
Its bite is said to be less dangerous than that of the other large Aus- 
tralian snakes, owing to the lower toxicity of its venom. 

Several other snakes of the genus Pseudechis live in Australia. One 
of these, inhabiting central Queensland, grows to be 9 feet long, with 
proportionately large fangs and poison glands. 

A still larger snake, the giant brown snake (Oayuranus scutellatus) , 
belongs to a closely related genus. It is restricted to Cape York Pen- 
insula. It is known to reach a length of over 9 feet. 


The copperhead snake. | 

While a reddish-brown or dark-brown color usually characterizes 
this snake (Denisonia superba, pl. 16, fig. 1), occasionally a bright red 
or black individual is found. The head is usually of a coppery tone, 
especially so in the young ones. It is a stouter-bodied creature than 
the black snake and does not grow quite so large, as 6-foot specimens 
are considered uncommonly large. When angry, it is said to rear a 
few inches from the ground, with the neck slightly curved, as the cobra 
does. Like the black snake, it frequents swamps and feeds on lizards 
and frogs. It is found in southeastern Australia and in Tasmania. 

There are about two dozen other closely related species belonging to 
this genus in Australia, some of them being no more than 15 inches 
long and with relatively weak venom. 


308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The brown snake. 

The larger members of the genus Demansia are considered highly 
dangerous, especially the brown snake (D. tewtzlis, pl. 16, fig. 2), which 
is usually 5 to 6 feet long, and widely distributed all over Australia. 
It is light yellow to brown or gray above and white below. The young, 
hatched from eggs, are ringed during the first year. This snake has 
a small head, but its bite is extremely serious, owing to its highly toxic 
venom. The snake is all the more dangerous as there is nothing in its 
appearance or behavior to excite fear, since it resembles one of our 
whipsnakes. There are about a dozen species of this genus, and several 
of them are called whipsnakes, owing to their slender build. 

Related forms of this dangerous snake occur in New Guinea as well. 


The tiger snake. 

The dark bands on a tawny ground suggest the name of this, the 
most savage and dangerous of Australian reptiles (pl. 17, fig. 1). 
Sometimes the ground color is so dark that the bands are indistinct. 
The venom is of such extremely high toxicity that it is not equaled by 
that of any other known snake. It seems to cause more fatalities in 
Australia than all the other poisonous snakes of that country put to- 
gether. The tiger snake (Wotechis scutatus), when disturbed, becomes 
furious, spreads out the neck to twice its usual width, and rushes 
toward its enemy. It resents being interfered with by other snakes 
and is said to be more than a match for the black snake. A man bitten 
by this snake may die within an hour if no treatment is given, and a 
dog in less than 20 minutes. The tiger snake is between 5 and 6 feet 
in length when full-grown, and its body is rather stout. It is extremely 
prolific, producing 50 or more young in a litter. Its food consists 
mainly of lizards. It likes dry country, hence its range is extensive 
both in Australia and Tasmania. 


The death adder. 


A short, thick, clumsy body not more than 3 feet long, and resembling 
that of a viperine snake far more than its own relatives just enu- 
merated, characterizes the death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus, pl. 
17, fig.2). In color it resembles the ground it lies on, so that it may be 
gray, brown, pink, or brick red, depending on the sandstone of the 
region in which a particular individual may live. In younger speci- 
mens, bands of darker shade cross the body; these may disappear with 
age. It is found in sandy localities over most of Australia except in 
southern Victoria, as well as in New Guinea and the Moluccas, thus 
having the widest range of any Australian poisonous snake. The 
young are born alive, about a dozen at a time. It has very rough 
scales, even on the head, and there is a spine on the tail. Its large 
head bears fangs that are no longer than those of the tiger snake, and 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 309 


its venom is so active that it is reckoned as highly dangerous. It 
is not so quick to strike as the tiger snake, but as it is likely to be 
stepped on, it is a constant menace. 

The broad-headed snake (genus Hoplosephalusa, the black and white 
ringed snake (genus Fwrina), the red-bellied snake (genus Pseudelaps), 
and their allies are not considered very dangerous to man, either 
because of their small size, their relatively weak venom, or their short 
fangs, and therefore will not be considered here. The status of the 
poison of some snakes, such as Micropechis ikahekae of New Guinea 
and the Solomons, is not yet established. 


THE SEA SNAKES 


This family (Hydrophidae) is the only other family of poisonous 
snakes found in Australia besides the Elapidae just discussed. It 
would be more proper to say “in the waters off the coasts,” for these 
snakes are never found inland. Twenty-seven species have been listed 
from the waters bathing the northern shores of Australia; these belong 
to 12 different genera. Since this group has been discussed under the 
section on “India, China, Japan, and Malaya,” it will not be further 
touched upon here. 


DANGEROUS NONPOISONOUS REPTILES 


Certain of the nonpoisonous reptiles may be important to man for 
one or more of three reasons: First, because their large size and 
great strength may allow them to bite, scratch, or crush whoever is 
unwary enough to approach them too closely; second, because their 
natural food may comprise rats, mice, and other pests which, if un- 
checked, would destroy the results of man’s industry; third, because 
their skins, flesh, or eggs may be economically useful. While the 
following comments are by no means complete, they will nevertheless 
bring to mind some of the more dangerous nonpoisonous reptiles to be 
encountered in the various geographic regions, with a brief mention 
of their positive economic importance. 


NORTH AMERICA 


The three large nonpoisonous reptiles on this continent which may do 
considerable bodily harm if they are interfered with are the Ameri- 
can crocodile, the alligator, and the alligator-snapper (a turtle); a 
smaller but very vicious turtle, the common snapping turtle, is also 
considered. The several species of soft-shelled turtles (family Triony- 
chidae) occurring in the United States are vicious biters like their rela- 
tives in Asia and Africa, but their smaller size—not exceeding a shell 
length of 18 inches—does not warrant their inclusion among the more 
dangerous reptiles of this area. 

566766—4421 


310 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


THe AMERICAN CROCODILE 


In the United States the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus, 
pl. 18, fig. 1) is found in southeastern Florida and in the Florida Keys, 
while beyond our borders it is known from the Greater Antilles (except 
Puerto Rico), and on both coasts of Central America from Mexico to 
Ecuador and Colombia. It attains a length of more than 14 feet, and 
for so bulky a creature it is surprisingly agile on land, being able to run 
with its body raised clear of the ground. It usually rushes for cover 
if startled while basking on the shore, but if brought to bay before it 
reaches the water, it can turn on its pursuer quickly with snapping jaws, 
at the same time dealing a heavy blow with its tail. In the water it ap- 
pears to be inoffensive; nevertheless, a large one might be tempted to at- 
tack a person bathing near its haunts. Its narrow snout serves to 
distinguish it from its broad-nosed relative, the alligator. Its jaws 
are very powerful in closing, so that its bite could easily sever an arm 
oraleg. In Cuba, as elsewhere, it is actively pursued for its valuable 
hide. The flesh of the tail of all crocodilians is greatly prized as food 
by the natives wherever these reptiles are found. 


THE AMERICAN ALLIGATOR 


The American alligator (Alligator mississipiensis, pl. 18, fig. 2) is 
found in rivers and swamps of the lowlands of the Carolinas, Georgia, 
and Florida, west to Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Rio Grande in 
Texas. Because of the industrial demand for the hides, large ones are 
hard to find nowadays, a 12-foot specimen being a rarity, although 
some as long as 15 feet probably once existed. It is timid by nature 
and will.try to escape into deep water when surprised. Like its rela- 
tive, the crocodile, it can defend itself with heavy jaws and threshing 
tail when the need arises. It feeds largely upon crustaceans, taking as 
many fish, turtles, birds, or small mammals as it can get, however. 
Very young alligators likewise devour insects. 


THE ALLIGATOR-SNAPPER 


The savage alligator-snapper (MMacrochelys temminckii, pl. 19, fig. 1) 
is a relative of the common snapping turtle, and because of its large 
size would be a serious menace to bathers except for its shy and secretive 
disposition. It is seldom found around heavily populated areas. It 
could defend itself very effectively against molestation by using its 
powerful jaws, but, as a matter of fact, accidents to human beings from 
its bite are very few. It attains a weight of about 140 pounds and a shell 
length of about 28 inches. It lies on the muddy bottom waiting for 
fish that may swim within its reach, enticing the fish to come near by 
opening its mouth, on the inside of which is a white filament of flesh, 
which looks like a large worm to a fish and acts as a very efficient bait. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN Bl! 


The flesh of this turtle was greatly esteemed by the Indians, for its 
bones can be found on many ancient camp sites. It occurs from Texas 
east to southern Georgia and northwestern Florida, as far south as 
the Suwannee River drainage system, north in the Mississippi Basin 
to central Illinois. 


Tue CoMMON SNAPPING TURTLE 


Found practically everywhere east of the Rockies south of Nova 
Scotia (excepting peninsular Florida), the common snapping turtle 
(Chelydra serpentina serpentina, pl. 19, fig. 2) is one of our commonest 
and most aggressive reptiles. It strikes with its head as a snake does 
and the sharp-edged jaws, although without teeth, can cause very seri- 
ous injury. A large one may weigh about 40 pounds, with a shell 
length of 14 inches. It is much less shy than its large relative, the 
alligator-snapper, and its fondness for shallow, muddy barnyard 
streams results in the loss of many young ducks and geese, which it 
catches by the foot and pulls under water to drown. It also feeds 
largely upon fish. Its flesh is sold in the markets, and the soup made 
from it ranks high on the menu of most sea-food restaurants. A 
subspecies occupies the peninsula of Florida, similar in habits and 
disposition to the common snapping turtle. 


LATIN AMERICA 


There are several kinds of large turtles found in Latin America, 
but none of these shows much inclination to bite even in self-defense, 
while their flesh and eggs are of decided value. Though snapping 
turtles related to those discussed above occur also in Mexico and 
Central America, they are rarely encountered. Several kinds of 
caymans and crocodiles, the anaconda, the boa, and some of the 
lizards large enough to scratch and bite complete the list of poten- 
tially dangerous nonpoisonous reptiles from this region. 


THE ANACONDA 


The anaconda (Zuneéctes murinus, pl. 20, fig. 1) is aquatic, often be- 
ing found submerged close to the banks of rivers in the Guianas, Brazil, 
and Amazonian Peru. It eats birds, mammals, crocodiles, fish, or 
anything that it can swallow. Its tremendous muscular power could 
be immediately fatal to a human being who was constricted within its 
coils, and undoubtedly there have been some fatalities, especially 
among Indians who go to the river to bathe. There is a difference of 
opinion as to the maximum size attained by this snake, some 
authorities maintaining that specimens over 30 feet long have been 
killed. It breeds when less than half that length, however, the young 
being born alive. A litter from a 19-foot female weighing 236 pounds 


we ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


contained 72 young snakes, each about a yard long. The leather made 
from anaconda hide is strong and of high quality, while its flesh can 
be used as food, since all snakes are edible. In Brazil its native names 
are sucuri or sucurijuba. Several varieties mostly based on color 
have been described. 

THE Boa 


The boa (Constrictor constrictor, pl. 20, fig. 2) has a much wider 
range than its relative, the anaconda, its several varieties being found 
from Mexico to the Argentine. Its maximum length seems to 
be about 13 feet. Some individuals can be quickly tamed in captivity, 
but others remain bad-tempered, striking and hissing with a great 
show of ferocity. Its sharp, recurved teeth can inflict a very severe 
and lacerating bite. It seldom stays long in water, but is an excellent 
climber and is frequently found in trees, where it goes to hunt for 
nesting or sleeping birds and small mammals. Its hide is much sought 
after, being very beautiful in color and pattern. 


THE BELIZE CROCODILE 


Found in great numbers in the Sibun swamp west of Belize, Brit- 
ish Honduras, the Belize crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) has been 
doubtfully recorded as far north as Tampico, Mexico. It grows to 
about 10 feet in length. Water beetles and insects comprise the 
food of the younger individuals. It is too shy to be of much danger 
to bathers. Its hide is valuable to commerce. 


THE ORINOCO CROCODILE 


Noted for its ferocity, the Orinoco crocodile (Crocodylus inter- 
medius) is greatly dreaded by the Indians who live in the Orinoco 
Delta where it occurs. Early writers insisted that it was 25 feet long 
when full-grown, but few over 10 feet long are to be found nowadays. 


THE CAYMANS 


In Central and South America occur seven species of caymans, two 
species belonging to the smooth-fronted genus Paleosuchus, the others 
to the “spectacled” Caiman, the “spectacles” in the latter consisting 
of a heavy ridge of bone between the eyes, lacking in the former genus. 

Very little is known about the habits and life histories of the smooth- 
fronted caymans. Both species are small (about 5 feet). They are 
found in the Paraguay, Amazon, and Orinoco Rivers. As far as is 
known, they are not vicious toward man. 

The spectacled caymans live in streams of Central and South 
America. The only one that reaches a considerable length is the black 
cayman, Caiman niger, found in the Amazon, and known to reach a 
length of more than 16 feet. It is feared by the natives, who tell 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 313 


many tales of its voracity. The Paraguayan cayman (C. yacare) is 
less than 10 feet in length, while the broad-snouted cayman (C. 
latirostris) from the Rio Sao Francisco and Alto Parana is about 7 
feet. The flesh, especially that of the tail, is reported to be excellent 
eating. 
IGUANAS AND OTHER LARGE LIZARDS 

Several kinds of large lizards (genera /guana, Conolophus, pl. 21,fig. 
1, etc.) can bite and scratch fiercely when captured. The true iguanas 
belonging to the genus Jgwana are extremely plentiful over most of 
tropical America including the southernmost of the West Indies. The 
value of their flesh as food, and of their skins for leather, makes them 
important to man wherever they are found. Most lizards are largely 
insectivorous, and in the insect-plagued Tropics every natural check 
on the increase of insect pests is to be encouraged. 


EUROPE AND NORTHERN ASIA 


There are no nonpoisonous reptiles of sufficient size to be dangerous 
to man in this region. Some snakes here, as elsewhere, will defend 
themselves if molested by attempting to bite. As these snakes can 
do little more than break the skin with their short teeth, they will not 
be further discussed. 


INDIA, CHINA, JAPAN, AND MALAYA 


This region is particularly rich in large and dangerous, though non- 
venomous, reptiles. The pythons come first to mind, then the Komodo 
“dragon,” the largest of all lizards living today. There are several kinds 
of smaller monitor lizards, close relatives of the Komodo dragon, able 
to battle fiercely with tooth and claw when their safety is at stake. 
The salt-water crocodile is known to be a man eater at times, and the 
Siamese crocodile is not blameless in this respect. The mugger and 
the gavial are less dangerous to man. The several kinds of soft- 
shelled turtles, while shy and retiring in habit, have knifelike jaws 
similar to those of their North American relatives and resent being 
disturbed in the same manner. 


THE RETICULATED PYTHON 


The snakes most frequently seen by the American public in side 
shows at circuses are the reticulated python (Python reticulatus) and 
the Indian python. The former is known to reach a length of 32 
feet, but whether this snake or the anaconda of South America can 
truly claim the title of “largest snake in the world” is still somewhat 
in dispute. A 28-foot python weighs 250 to 300 pounds, so that it is 
far less bulky in proportion to its length than the heavy-bodied 


314 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


anaconda. Its coils possess great constricting power, and a large 
python has no trouble in crushing a pig or goat, which it then pro- 
ceeds to swallow whole. The tales of pythons being able to swallow 
an ox are utterly false, but there is an apparently authentic story of 
a 14-year-old boy being eaten by a python in the East Indies. 
Leather made from python hide is very beautiful and is much desired 
by the trade, and before the war a great number of skins were ex- 
ported each year from Asiatic ports. 


THE INDIAN PYTHON 


Snakes of this species are welcomed by snake charmers because of 
their sluggish and “gentle” dispositions. Even in a wild state, the 
Indian python (Python molurus, pl. 22, fig. 2) is known to make little 
effort to escape, and when attacked often makes no attempt to avenge 
offense or injury. It is fond of lying partially submerged near the bank 
of a river and can remain under water entirely for several minutes. It 
possesses great muscular strength and, in spite of its lack of aggres- 
Siveness, can overpower a leopard with ease. It is active by day as 
well as by night, feeding on mammals, birds, and reptiles. Two 
color phases of this species are known, the individuals of one phase 
being light in color, the others dark. The extreme length is about 25 
feet. 

THE Komopo Dragon LizArD 


The Komodo dragon lizard (Varanus komodoensis, pl. 21, fig, 2), the 
largest existing lizard, was unknown to science until 1912. It occurs on 
Komodo, Flores, Rindja, and Padar Islands, all lying close together 
east of Java and south of Celebes. Small deer and wild pigs form 
its staple diet, with turtle eggs which it digs up on the shore where 
other food is scare. It is extremely voracious, falling savagely upon 
a wounded member of its own species if it has the opportunity. It 
is naturally wary toward man, but fights desperately when cornered, 
using the tail as a means of defense, as the crocodilians do. Its maxi- 
mum size appears to be about 10 feet, and such an individual may 
weigh 250 pounds if in good condition. In walking, it swings its 
head from side to side close to the ground, usually dragging the tip 
of the tail. The young lizards before they are strong enough to pull 
down larger game climb trees to hunt for birds’ eggs. The old ones 
make burrows between tree roots and sometimes under rocks. 


OTHER MONITOR LIZARDS 


Nearly 20 species of monitors (genus Varanus) live in southern 
Asia and Malaya. After the dragon lizard, the largest of these, 
measuring 8 feet in total length, is the kabara goya (Varanus sal- 
vator), also called water monitor by the English because it is more 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 315 


aquatic than the other Asiatic species. It climbs trees in search of 
food, but when frightened, it takes to the water for safety and has 
been seen swimming far out at sea. It can run at good speed when 
pursuing its prey on land. The soft-shelled eggs, from 15 to 30 in 
a clutch, are laid at the beginning of the rainy season in holes on the 
bank of a river or in trees beside the water. The desert monitor 
(Varanus griseus) lives in arid regions of northwestern India west- 
ward throughout southern Asia to the Caspian Sea and North Africa. 
Tt retires to its own burrow or the disused hole of some other animal 
during the heat of the day. The other species of monitors are more 
or less intermediate in habits between the two mentioned. Monitors 
can be destructive to poultry and their eggs, but this is offset by the 
number of rats and mice that they destroy. They can all bite and 
claw with great vigor when hunted down, and the tail is often used as 
a lash. Other monitors occurring in Africa will be mentioned below. 


Tur Sorr-SHELLED TURTLES 


Several genera of soft-shelled turtles (family Trionychidae), all very 
similar in appearance, occupy the region under discussion. They are 
fond of burying themselves in mud, with only the head and part of 
the back exposed, where they remain nearly invisible waiting for their 
food to pass, when they seize it with a quick movement of the long neck. 
They eat fish, mollusks, and frogs, but will take carrion also. Much 
of their food is found by hunting, for they are extremely voracious, 
and very active when swimming, although clumsy on land. The 
adults are vicious and powerful creatures, some species with the upper 
shell nearly a yard long. They are dangerous to handle, for they can 
give severe bites. Their long flexible necks enable them to reach most 
parts of their body, and when catching them the only place to hold 
them with safety is the margin of the soft disk or “shell” just in front 
of the hind limbs. Their flesh is said to be delicious, and they are for 
sale in many markets of the Orient. 


THE SALT-WATER OR ESTUARINE CROCODILE 


The salt-water or estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus, pl. 22, fig. 
1) can without any doubt be called the giant among living reptiles, be- 
cause authentic specimens measuring more than 20 feet are known from 
the Philippines. The species ranges also to the east coast of India, 
Ceylon, Malaya, the north coast of Australia, the Solomon and Fiji 
Islands. It lives in the mouths of muddy rivers and canals near the sea, 
seldom ascending a river above tidal limits, and has been found several 
miles out to sea. Its huge size enables it to overcome large and powerful 
animals. It is the species that causes most of the annual loss of human 
lives in Asia which is attributed to crocodiles. When an individual 


316 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


has once acquired man-eating habits, it appears to have a preference 
for human beings as food, probably because they are more easily ob- 
tained than wild beasts. It is only the adult crocodile that is able to 
attack man and large animals. Fish, birds, and turtles are likewise 
relished. Young ones eat crustaceans and even insects. The female 
makes a nest of reeds and rushes, the heat of decomposition of which 
incubates her eggs. The Burmese and some other Asiatic races are 
fond of the flesh of this crocodile, while the Siamese trap it for its 
gall bladder, believed by them to have remarkable medicinal powers. 


THE SIAMESE CROCODILE 


While the Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) grows to a 
length of nearly 12 feet, it is not as a rule aggressive toward adult 
human beings, although small children are said to be seized sometimes. 
In the rivers it prefers to stay above the tidal limits. It feeds chiefly 
upon fish. Its flesh is sometimes eaten but is no longer a regular article 
of commerce. 

THE MuccER 


Two other popular names of the mugger (Crocodylus palustris) are 
the marsh and the broad-snouted crocodile. Its range extends through- 
out the whole Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, west almost to the Per- 
sian frontier in Baluchistan, north to Nepal and east to Assam. It 
lives in swamps and rivers, usually above the tide line. During the 
dry season it buries itself in the mud and aestivates until the rains 
come. It feeds chiefly on birds and fish, and only occasionally at- 
tacks man. The mugger is hunted by the natives of Sind, but only 
as a defensive measure in order to protect their fish. 


THE GAVIAL 


Living in rivers of India and Burma, the gavial (also spelled 
gharial) (Gavialis gangeticus) reaches a length of over 21 feet. Its 
food consists mostly of fish, with some birds, and it has been known 
to seize goats and dogs. It rarely attacks man and hence is little 
feared. 

AFRICA 


The dangerous nonvenomous reptiles found in Africa belong to the 
same groups as those found in Asia—in fact, one or two are of identical 
species on both continents. 


THE Rock PyTHON 


Reliable records indicate that the rock python (Python sebae, pl. 23, 
fig. 1) grows to a length of at least 25 feet. It is found all over Africa 
except in Egypt and the Mediterranean and desert regions of the north. 
It is common in some localities and remains so even in the vicinity of 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 317 


some native villages, for it is often reputed to be supernatural, hence is 
avoided by the people of the region. Wart hogs are said to kill pythons 
sometimes, and crocodiles may occasionally become involved in a 
struggle when the snake drinks at a river. In Natal the rock python is 
a valuable ally of the sugarcane growers, for it devours considerable 
numbers of rats and is the chief enemy of the destructive cane-eating 
rat. Pythons are in consequence encouraged, and semitame specimens 
frequent most of the sugar factories. There are very few authentic 
cases of human casualties due to the rock python’s embrace, although 
there are plently of instances of fully adult persons being caught who 
were strong enough to get away. 


THE WARAL AND OTHER MONITORS 


The waral (Varanus niloticus), sometimes called the Nile monitor, 
is found all over Africa except in the northwestern part, being espe- 
cially conspicuous along the banks of the Nile. It is more or less 
aquatic in habit and lives largely on fish, but eats rats and mice with 
avidity also. Its habit of digging up and eating the eggs and young 
of the crocodile is sufficient reason to ensure its respectful regard by 
the natives. Its total length when full-grown is slightly over 5 feet. 

Several other monitors occur in Africa, though ranging over a 
less extensive area than does the waral. Some live in desert regions, 
one of these, Varanus griseus, being found in southern Asia. All can 
bite and scratch fiercely, and the tail-lashing habit is more or less 
prevalent. 

THE NILE CROCODILE 


The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) attains a length of 17 feet, 
and is generally abundant from the Nile to the Senegal, and south to 
the Cape of Good Hope, as well as in Madagascar. It is extremely 
vicious and dangerous, taking many lives each year. Its food consists 
chiefly of fish, with birds and mammals unwary enough to come near 
it. The eggs are laid in dry sand, 40 to 60 in number, and are about 
the size of goose eggs. The young are nearly 6 inches long when 
hatched. They make for water at once, although many of them be- 
come the prey of the Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) as already 
mentioned. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the crocodile, and its 
mummified remains have been found in tombs dating back thousands 
of years. 

THE LONG-SNOUTED CROCODILE 


The long-snouted crocodile (Crocodylus cataphractus) is definitely 
a West African species, being confined to the Congo basin. It attains 
a length of 12 feet. Like that of the gavial of India, its elongated snout 
is ideally adapted for fishing. Young individuals feed on anything 
they can find, including shrimps, crabs, frogs, snakes, fish, and even 


318 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


grasshoppers. Not many accidents from the bite of this crocodile are 
reported; this may be due to the fact that palisades are erected in the 
river near villages where crocodiles occur, providing places of safety 
for bathing and obtaining water. 

Two other crocodiles, Osteolaemus tetraspis and Osteoblepharon 
osborni, are characteristically West African in distribution. The for- 
mer has a very short, turned-up snout but otherwise looks much like 
the latter. Both are rather small, not exceeding 5 feet, and probably 
are not at all dangerous to man. 


THE AFRICAN SOFT-SHELLED TURTLE 


The African soft-shelled turtle (7'rionyx triunguis) frequents the 
Nile, the Congo, and the Senegal Rivers and their tributaries, as well 
as rivers in Syria. When fully grown its shell is over a yard in 
length, and its body weight 200 pounds. It has all the biting ability 
of its relatives in Asia and in North America. In all parts of its 
range this turtle is hunted and eaten by the natives. 


AUSTRALIA 


Except for the large pythons and some monitor lizards and the salt- 
water crocodile, this region has few nonpoisonous dangerous reptiles. 


THE DIAMOND PyTHON 


The diamond python (Python spilotes) grows to a length of 20 feet, 
hence ranking with the half-dozen or more largest living serpents. In 
addition to eating rats, mice, and rabbits, it destroys some of the rarer 
and more valuable Australian mammals. Its skin is much sought 
after, and python farming for commercial purposes may some day 
be a reality. 


OTHER LARGE SNAKES 


It is necessary to give only a brief mention of the six or seven other 
large members of the python family (genera Python, Liasis, Aspi- 
dites) found in Australia, some of which are said to grow to 16 feet 
in length. They are mostly arboreal in habit and have great muscular 
power in constricting. 

It is well to emphasize again the fact that a great many Australian 
snakes not of the python family are dangerously poisonous. 


THE GOANNA 


The goanna (Varanus varius) is also known as lace monitor or 
(erroneously) as the iguana. It climbs trees habitually for birds’ eggs 
and young birds. It is equally fond of poultry and makes itself a 
nuisance in the henyards of populated areas. It bites severely with 
its sharp teeth if handled incautiously. di 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—-COCHRAN 319 


The skin of the goanna is in even greater demand for shoes than 
snake skin, as it is tougher, and is very attractive when properly 
prepared. 


GovuLb’s MONITOR 


Unlike the preceding species, Gould’s monitor (Varanus gouldii, 
pl. 23, fig. 2) does not take to trees, but lives on the ground in holes and 
is usually found in waterless districts. It is much less vicious than the 
goanna, although it hisses loudly if vexed and inflates the loose skin of 
the body. It grows to a little over 4 feet in length. 

Other Australian monitors are more or less intermediate in habits 
between these two. 

THE SALT-WATER CROCODILE 


The salt-water crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), a dangerous man 
eater, has already been discussed under the section on Asia, since 
it ranges there as well as in northern Australia. It infests the tidal 
mouths of streams especially in North Queensland, and when sur- 
prised it actively resents any intruder’s presence. It has excellent 
hearing and is very difficult to approach for this reason, as it slides 
into the water at the slightest sound. It ascends water courses, so 
that the clear pools of fresh water in the upper reaches are by no 
means safe for bathers. 


APPENDIX 
FIRST-AID TREATMENT 


While it is not. within the scope of this paper to give any medical 
advice as to the treatment of cases of snake bite, it is desirable to re- 
publish the first-aid directions contained in a leaflet issued by the makers 
of standard antivenin serum. They say: 


IN CASE OF BITE 


Snake bites. should be treated immediately. The following first-aid measures 
should be employed: Mr 
FIRST AID 


Apply constricting band. above bite. just tight enough to prevent ‘absorption 
and not interfere entirely with flow of blood. A cold, numb limb means constric- 
tion is too tight and should be loosened. 

Make deep X-shaped: cuts % inch’ long through skin at points where fangs 
entered skin. Let the blood flow from these cuts. Make additional cuts at edge 
of swollen: area: Help flow of blood from these’ cuts. by suction. Make suction 
for 15 or.20. minutes every hour for.several hours. : ‘In-interval between suction 
treatment, cover with cloths wet with strong. solution of table salt or epsom salts 
in water. 

Don’t cauterize the wounds or r apply postassium permanganate. 

Don’t run or exercise. Don’t take any alcoholic stimulants; » 


320 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


ASSOCIATED TREATMENT 


Of general measures apart from antivenin, sedatives such as morphine or 
aspirin, or small doses of a barbiturate may be given to relieve pain and nervous- 
ness. For collapse, strychnine, aromatic spirits of ammonia or other general 
stimulants are of some value. In all severely poisoned persons, great relief is 
likely to be experienced from the infusion of a large amount of physiological 
saline, or still better, transfusion of blood, the effects of which may be life saving 
in borderline cases. 


ANTIVENIN AND ITS PREPARATION 


Antivenomous serums used to combat the deadly effects of the bites 
of poisonous snakes are prepared by medical institutions in many coun- 
ties. In the United States the Sharp and Dohme Laboratories at 
Glen Olden, Pa., furnish a serum effective against the bites of all the 
important poisonous snakes to be found in this country, as well as 
serums for use in tropical America. 

“The first step in preparing an antivenomous serum, or ‘antivenin,’ 
is the extraction of the venom from the snakes by manually forcing 
it into a suitable container. It is then partially purified by centrifuga- 
tion, dried, and stored for use. As it is needed it is dissolved, steri- 
lized, and injected into horses, starting with very small doses which are 
repeated in gradually increasing amounts every week or every 2 weeks. 
Eventually the horses become so highly immune that they can with- 
stand amounts several hundred times as great as would kill a normal 
horse. Their blood is tested periodically to determine its antiven- 
omous potency. When it is up to a set standard, the horses are bled at 
regular intervals. The serum is separated from the cells and is con- 
centrated in such a manner as to remove much of the inactive sub- 
stances, leaving a highly active material that is the antivenin of com- 
merce. 

In general, it may be said that an antivenin is satisfactorily effec- 
tive only against bites from snakes of the same type that supplied 
the venom used in its preparation. Jt may be useful in treating bites 
from closely related species, but usually it is worthless, or nearly so, 
in accidents from unallied types. Thus, an antivenin prepared 
against the venom of a rattlesnake is useless, or nearly so, in treating 
bites of cobras, and vice versa. Fortunately, however, it is possible 
to prepare one antivenin that will counteract several different venoms, 
merely by using a mixture of venoms in immunizing the horses. This 
method is used in the United States and results in a product that is 
effective in treating bites of all native poisonous snakes except the 
coral snake, bites from which are rare. Such polyvalent serums are 
prepared in other countries as well, and they greatly simplify the 
treatment of bites. When the snake responsible for the bite can be 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN 321 


identified beyond any doubt, it is best to use the specific antivenin, 
if one is available.” (Nigel Wolff, personal communication. ) 

A famous laboratory for making antivenin for the bites of neo- 
tropical poisonous snakes is the Instituto Butantan at Sao Paulo, 
Brazil. In exchange for live snakes from which to obtain fresh 
venom, which are sent in by planters and farmers all over Brazil, 
the institute furnishes fresh antivenin to use in the many cases of 
snake bite occuring among the laborers clearing ground for new 
plantations. The death rate from snake bite in Brazil was estimated 
to be about 3,000 a year before the establishment of the institute. In 
1930, however, after careful tabulation, the total appeared to be well 
under 100. 

In Australia, the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories at Melbourne 
manufacture antivenin for the bites of the tiger snake and death 
adder, the two most deadly snakes of that region. 

In the French colonies, various branches of the Pasteur Institute 
provide serums for different kinds of local poisonous snakes. The 
Burroughs-Wellcome products, of English manufacture, are available 
in India and Egypt and other areas of British influence, while the South 
African Institute for Medical Research, Johannesburg, supplies serum 
for the bite of many African species. 


DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS 


In little-explored regions there is always the incentive of dis- 
covering unknown species, which would be of great scientific value 
if they could be collected and preserved for the United States Na- 
tional Museum in Washington, D.C. It is relatively easy to preserve 
snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads. All that is necessary after killing 
them is to make a short incision with a penknife on the ventral surface 
into the stomach and intestines, then they can be dropped into a 
solution of 1 part formaldehyde and 10 parts water and left for 2 
or 8 days. They should then be changed into a fresh solution of 
the same strength. When they are to be packed for shipment, an 
empty gasoline tin should be lined with paper or straw to prevent 
the rust from discoloring the skins of the preserved specimens. The 
specimens themselves should be loosely wrapped in cheesecloth damp- 
ened with formaldehyde, with the place of collection, the date col- 
lected, and the name of the collector very plainly written with soft 
black pencil on heavy paper. This information is absolutely neces- 
sary, for without it the specimens are valueless. The gasoline tin 
may then be soldered shut, and the specimens will keep for several 
months without more attention. Those interested in natural history 
will find it a pleasant occupation for spare time to make such collec- 
tions, and the collections will be assured of prompt study and identi- 
fication upon their arrival at the United States National Museum. 


322 = ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 


ANTIVENIN INSTITUTE OF AMERICA (NOW SHARP AND DOHME). 
1927-1931. Bull., vols. 1-5. Glen Olden, Pa. 
BouLeENGcER, E. G. 
1914. Reptiles and batrachians. London and New York. 
- BOULENGER, GEORGE A. 
1880. The fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Taylor 
and Francis, London. 
1912. A vertebrate fauna of the Malay Peninsula. Reptilia and Batrachia. 
Taylor and Francis, London. 
1913. The snakes of Europe. Methuen and Co., London. 
BurRDEN, W. DOUGLAS. 
1927. The dragon lizards of Komodo. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York and 
London. 
CoNANT, RoGER, and BriIpGEs, WILLIAM. 
1939. What snake is that? D. Appleton-Century Co., New York and London. 
CurRAN, C. H., and KAUFFELD, CARL. 
1937. Snakes and their ways. Harper and Brothers, New York and London. 
DeE Roorgs, NELLY. 
1917. Reptiles of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. II. Ophidia. E. J. 
Brill, Leiden. 
De Sota, C. RALPH. 
1933. The crocodilians of the world. Bull. New York Zool. Soc., vol. 26, 
No. 1, pp. 2-24 (photographs), Jan.—Feb. 
Dirmars, RayMonp L. 
1907. The reptile book. Doubleday, Page and Co. 
1930. The poisonous serpents of the New World. Bull. New York Zool. 
Soe., vol. 33, No. 3, May—June. 
1934. Snakes of the world. Macmillan Co. 
Firzsimons, F. W. 
1912. The snakes of South Africa. Longman, Green and Co., London. 
GabDow, HANS. 
1901. Amphibia and reptiles, in The Cambridge Natural History. Macmil- 
lan Co., New York and London. 
GLoyp, Howarp K. 
1940. The rattlesnakes, genera Sistrurus and Crotalus. Chicago Acad. 
Sci., Spee. Publ. 4. 
KincHorn, J. R. 
1929. The snakes of Australia. Angus and Robertson, Ltd., Sydney, New 
South Wales. 
Lucas, A. H. S., and Le Souer, W. H. D. 
1901. The animals of Australia. Mammals, reptiles and amphibians. 
Whitcomb and Tombes, Melbourne, New Zealand, and London. 
PITMAN, CHARLES R. S. 
1938. A guide to the snakes of Uganda. Kampala. 
Pops, CiLirForD H. 
1987. Snakes alive and how they live. Viking Press, New York. 
1939. Turtles of the United States and Canada. Knopf, New York and 
London. 
ScHmipt, Karr P. 
1919. | Contributions to the herpetology of the Belgian Congo based on the 
collection of the American Congo Expeditions, 1909-1915. Bull. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 39, art. 2, pp. 885-624. 


DANGEROUS REPTILES—COCHRAN ove 


ScHMinT, Karr P., and Davis, D. DwicHrT. 
1941. Field book of snakes of the United States and Canada. G. P. Put- 
nam’s Sons, New York. 
Smitry, Matcorm A. 
1926. Monograph of the sea-snakes (Hydrophiidae). British Museum, 
London. 
1931. The fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia, vol. 1, Loricata, 
Testudines. Taylor and Francis, London. 
1935. Idem, vol. 2, Sauria. 
STEJNEGER, LEONHARD. 
1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Ann. Rep. U. 8. Nat. Mus. 
for 1893, pp. 337-487. 
Von IHERING, RODOLPHO. 
1934. Da vida dos nossos animais. Fauna do Brasil. Rotermund, Sao 
Leopoldo. 
WALL, FRANK. 
1907. The poisonous terrestrial snakes of our British Dominions and how 
to recognize them. Higginbotham, Madras. 
1921. ‘The snakes of Ceylon. H.R. Cottle, Ceylon. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 2 


le Bs tt a ’ 


1 om 2 rn so tiie as wil i oh a 


1. Coral snake (Micrurus fulvius), also called harlequin or bead snake. Color: wide rings of crimson and 
black, the latter narrowly bordered with yellow (see plate 1). Length: 3 feet. Range: North Carolina to 
Florida; the Gulf States and Mississippi Valley States north to Ohio and Indiana. Poisonous. (Courtesy 
Philadelphia Zoological Society.) 


Bs ues ic SEES “a irt Ras OE 6 gat as 
' ; ee St NED se , dha Se i te as od 
2. Timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), also called black or banded rattler. Color: yellow or tan with 
wavy cross bands of dark brown or black, sometimes almost entirely black. Length: 516 feet. Range: 
Maine to Georgia, west through Louisiana to Texas; the Mississippi Valley States into Wisconsin. Ex- 
tremely poisonous; aggressive if disturbed. (Courtesy Philadelphia Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 3 


1. Carolina pigmy rattler (Sistrurus miliarius), also called ground rattler. Color: grayish with a series of 
darker rounded blotches and a reddish band along the back. Length: 2 feet. Range: North Carolina to 
Georgia and Alabama. Poisonous. (Courtesy Dr. W. Gardner Lynn.) 


2. Copperhead (Agkistrodon mokeson), also called rattlesnake pilot, chunk-head, and highland moccasin. 
Color: pale brown, pinkish or light reddish brown, with a series of chestnut-brown hour-glass-shaped 
markings (see pl. 1). Length: 4 feet. Range: Massachusetts to Georgia and the Carolinas, exclusive 
of peninsular Florida. Not aggressive unless disturbed. Poisonous. (Courtesy Philadelphia Zoological 


Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 4 


® : ; 
e. al ] 

1. Tropical rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus terrificus), also called cascabel. 
large dark brown ‘‘diamonds”’ on the body, and a pair of dark longitudinal stripes on the neck. Length: 
6 to 7 feet. Range: drier parts of the Guianas, Venezuela and Colombia to northern Argentina, Paraguay, 


and southern Brazil. Most poisonous of all the rattlers: very aggressive. (Courtesy Bulletin of the Anti- 
venin Institute.) 


Color: yellowish gray with 


¥ 2. Bushmaster (Lachesis mutus), a!so called la cascabela muda in Central America, sirocucu in Brazil, 
and mapepire z’anannain Trinidad. Color: pale brown, often pinkish, with a series of large brown blotches 
wider on the back and abruptly narrower on the sides. Length: over 11 feet. Range: southern Central 


America through tropical South America, including Trinidad. Exceedingly poisonous; aggressive. (Cour- 
tesy New York Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran 


Mare ay 
e aye 


se 


1. Fer-de-lance (Bothrops atror), also called barba amarilla, jararaca, terciopelo, or tomigoff. Color: gray 
to olive, brown or reddish, with dark, light-edged cross bands or triangles, the apex of these extending to 
the center of the back. Length:8 feet. Range:southern Mexico to central Brazil, also Trinidad and Tobago; 


Martinique and St. Lucia in the West Indies. Exceedingly poisonous. (Courtesy New York Zoological 
Society.) 


ar. £. E 
; Tot ite hw Somes 
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9 


March’s palm viper (Bothrops nigroviridis marchi). Color: uniformly brilliant green above, merging 


into yellowish green on the sides. Length: not quite 2 feet. Range: Honduras. Dangerously poisonous. 
(Courtesy Nature Magazine.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 6 


is Sec Dataueeas NNaste s : % 


1. Hog-nosed viper (Bothrops nasuta), also called nose-horned viper. Color: brown with alternating small 
black spots along the back separated by a pale line. Length: 2 feet. Range: eastern Central America to 
Colombia and Ecuador. Poisonous. (Courtesy Nature Magazine.) 


Metaerd 
ee i 
PP ARE ae 


oe 


2. Mussurana (C/lelia clelia), a beneficial snake because of its habit of eating other snakes, especially the 
fer-de-lance. Color: blue black above, white below (Central American specimens). Length:8 feet. Range: 
Guatemala through Brazil. Back-fanged, but the bite not fatal to man. (Courtesy Nature Magazine.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 7 


Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum). Color: yellow with dull brown or black irregular markings. 
Length: 244 feet. Range: Central Mexico to northern Central America. Not aggressive unless disturbed. 


£72 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 8 


ess 


1. Common viper (Vipera berus), also called adder or kreuzotter (in Germany). Color: gray, olive, brown, 
or reddish, uniform or with small dark lateral spots; a dark zigzag pattern along the back. Length: over 
2 feet. Range: Great Britain; northern Europe, and Asia to the Amur River and Sakhalin Island; south- 
ward in Europe to the Pyrenees, the Apennines, and the Balkans. Dangerously poisonous, savage, and 
quick. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


2. Orsini’s viper (\V7pera ursinii), also called marasso alpino in Italy. Color: yellowish or pale brown 
with a series of dark brown spots which may run together in a wavy or zigzag band; sides dark gray or brown. 
Length: 2 feet. Range: southern France, northern Italy, Hungary, and parts of Jugoslavia. Slightly poi- 
sonous; not aggressive. (Courtesy Bulletin of the Antivenin Institute.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 9 


1. Daboia (Vipera russellii), also called Russell’s viper or tie-polonga. Color: pale brown, with 3 rows of 
large black rings bordered with white or yellow, having red or brown centers. Length: 5 feet. Range: 
India, Ceylon, China, the Malay Peninsula, and some of the East Indian islands. Extremely poisonous; 
not aggressive unless disturbed. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


ee BT 


2. Indian cobra (Naja naja), also called spectacled or Asiatic cobra. Color: yellowish to dark brown, 
with a black and white, usually spectacle-shaped mark on the hood when spread. Length: 6 feet. Range: 
eastern shores of Caspian Sea through Asia into China and Formosa, the Malay Archipelago, and the 
Philippines. Exceedingly poisonous; aggressive when disturbed. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 10 


1, King cobra (Naja hannah), also called hamadryad. Color: olive or yellowish brown, often with black 
cross bands. Length: over 18 feet. Range: eastern India, China, the Malay Archipelago, and the Philip- 
pines. Extremely dangerous; very aggressive. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


Br vou 


2. Banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus), also called ular welang in Malay. Color: yellow above, with broad 
black rings. Length: nearly 5 feet. Range: southern India and China, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, 
and Borneo, Extremely poisonous; not aggressive unless disturbed. (Courtesy New York Zoological 
Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 11 


Cree 


1. Night adder (Causus rhombeatus), also called Cape viper. Color: gray, with a chain of dark, light- 
edged spots along the back. Length: 3 feet. Range: the greater part of South Africa to the Nile. Extremely 
poisonous; aggressive when disturbed. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


2. Puff adder (Bitis arietans). Color: a series of black chevrons separated by yellow crescents down the 
back. Leneth: 5 feet. Range: southern Morocco and the southern Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope, also 
Arabia. Extremely poisonous; hisses loudly when disturbed. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PEATE 1/2 


1. Rhinoceros viper (Bitis nasicornis), also called river jack. Color: a row of large blue oblong marks down 
the back, with a yellow line in the center and black borders; a series of dark crimson triangles bordered 
with blue on the sides; top of head blue with a black arrow-shaped mark pointing forward. Length: 4 feet. 
Range: tropical West Africa. Extremely poisonous, but not aggressive. (Courtesy New York Zoological 


Society.) 


: 
| 
biases 


2. Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica). Color: a series of oblong buff marks enclosed in brown ovals along the 
back, with a chain of purplish marks outside of these; sides with triangular purplish blotches; eyes silvery. 
Length: nearly 6 feet. Range: forests of West Africa, also Uganda, Tanganyika, Northern Rhodesia, Angola, 
and the island of Zanzibar. Extremely poisonous. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


ithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PIPATE ic: 


1. Common sand viper (Aspis vipera). Color: pale yellowish or pinkish with fai rker blotches. 
Length: 2 feet. Range: northern Africa from Algeria to Egypt. Poisonous. (Courtesy , York Zoological 
Society.) 


2. Ringhals (/7aemachates haemachatus), also called keel- ed spitting cobra. Color: brown or dull bl 
above, sometimes with cross bars of brown; underside b h, except for a pale band or two on the neck. 
Length: about 4 feet. Range: Cape of Good Hope and Namaqualand. Dangerously poisonous not only 
from the bite, but from its habit of spraying poison in the eyes of its victim, and very aggressive. (Courtesy 
New York Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—-Cochran PLATE 14 


Phage pag cet 
ae eet 
et 


1. Egyptian cobra (Naja haje), also called asp. Color: brown, sometimes with faint darker markings. 
Length: 6 feet. Range: northern and eastern Africa from Morocco to Natal. Extremely poisonous; irritable 
and aggressive. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


2. Water cobra (Boulengerina stormsi). Color: light brown with a series of black, light-centered bands or 
spots on the body. Length: 8 feet. Range: lakes and rivers in Cameroon, the French and Belgian Congos, 
and Lake Tanganyika. Degree of toxicity unknown; aquatic; not aggressive out of water. (Courtesy New 
York Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Re ort, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 15 


1. Green mamba (Dendraspis viridis). Colo en or dark olive, uniform or each scale brown at the end; 
lips yellowish, outlined with black. Length: 749 feet. Range: West Africa from the Senegal to the Niger. 
Poisonous. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


2. Australian black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus). Color: above blue black: beneath scarlet, the scales 


often edged with black. Length: 6 to 7 feet. Range: Australia, except the northern part. Poisonous. 
(Courtesy Bulletin of the Antivenin Institute.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 16 


wRpee 


1. Australian copperhead (Denisonia superba). Color: brown to black above, the head usually coppery. 
Length: 6 feet. Range: southeastern Australia and Tasmania. Dangerously poisonous; not aggressive. 
(Courtesy Bulletin of the Antivenin Institute.) 


_2. Brown snake (Demansia tertilis). Color: light brown or gray above, white below; young specimens 
ringed with black. Length: 5 feet. Range: widely distributed throughout Australia. Extremely poisonous; 
not aggressive. (Courtesy Bulletin of the Antivenin Institute.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 17 


1. Tiger snake (Nofechis scutatus). Color: green, gray, orange or brown, with dark bands. Length: over 
5 feet. Range: southern half of Australia. Extremely poisonous; very aggressive. (Courtesy Bulletin of 
the Antivenin Institute.) 


ae 


2. Death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus). Color: brownish or gray, with dark bands which are most 
apparent in the young. Length: 3 feet. Range: dry parts of Australia, except Victoria. Extremely poi- 
sonous. (Courtesy Bulletin of the Antivenin Institute.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 18 


1. American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). Color: adults olive to dull gray; young, greenish with black 
markings. Length: over 14 feet. Range: southeastern Florida and Florida Keys; the Greater Antilles 
except Puerto Rico; both coasts of Central America from Mexico to Ecuador and Colombia. Usually not 
aggressive but dangerous because of powerful tail and jaws. (Courtesy National Zoological Park.) 


e 


3 


2. American alligator (Alligator mississipiensis). Color: Adults uniformly black or dull gray; young, 
black or dark brown with bright yellow cross bands. Length: about 12 feet. Range: from the Carolinas to 
Florida, west through the Gulf States to the Rio Grande in Texas. Usually timid, but able to defend itself 
by lashing its tail and biting savagely. (Courtesy National Zoological Park.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 19 


1. Alligator-snapper (Macrochelys temminckii). Color: light brown or yellowish. Shell length: about 28 
inches. Range: from Texas to southern Georgia and northwestern Florida, as far south as the Suwanee 
River drainage system, north in the Mississippi basin to central Illinois. Shy and retiring in the wild 
state, but able to bite viciously when disturbed. (Courtesy Philadelphia Zoological Society.) 


2. Common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina serpentina). Color: upper shell dull olive or dark brown; 
lower shell yellowish; head and limbs very dark above, light beneath. Shelllength: about 14inches. Range: 
eastern North America from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, except peninsular Florida, where it 
is replaced by a related subspecies. Able to inflict a severe bite with its sharp-edged jaws. (Courtesy 
A. I. Ortenburger.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 20 


1. Anaconda (Hunectes sp.). Color: olive with two rows of large black spots on back, and smaller ones, 
often with yellowish or orange centers, toward the belly; orange dark-bordered streak on side of head. 
Length: possibly over 30 feet. Range: Guianas, Brazil, and Peru. Constricts and crushes its victim; 
jaws with long, backward-slanting teeth to hold prey. (Courtesy Philadelphia Zoological Society.) 


2. Boa (Constrictor constrictor subsp.). Color: pale tan or yellow to reddish brown, with dark brown 


saddles often enclosing lighter markings; scales highly iridescent. Length; about 13 feet. Range: Mexico to 
the Argentine (in several varieties). Constricting and biting. (Courtesy Philadelphia Zooloicgal Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 21 


ae 
+ 


ag 
1. Galapagos land iguana (Conolophus sp.). Color: head and neck dull orange to yellow; body, tail, and 
limbs dark brown. Length: about 4 feet. Range: the Galapagos Islands. While these and other large 
iguanas of other genera are not at all aggressive, they can bite and scratch with great vigor when captured. 
(Courtesy National Zoological Park.) 


2. Komodo dragon lizard (Varanus komodoensis). Color: dull brown or black; tongue yellow. Length: 
about 10 feet. Range: restricted to four small islands (Komodo, Flores, Rindja, and Padar) lying east of 
Java and south of Celebes. Wary toward man, but very strong and a vicious fighter with teeth, claws, 
and lashing tail. (Courtesy Philadelphia Zoological Society.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—-Cochran PLATE 22 


1. Salt-water crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). Color: dark olive brown to black. Length: up to 33 feet. 
Range: India, Ceylon, southern China, the Malay Archipelago, the Solomon and Fiji Islands, and northern 
Australia. Extremely vicious and aggressive, being accountable for many deaths each year in the Malay 
region and India. (Courtesy New York Zoological Society.) 


2. Indian python (Python molurus). Two color phases: dark olivaceous with almost black markings, 
and bright tan with olive-brown blotches, with usually a pinkish band on each side of head. Length: up 
to 25 feet. Range: India, the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon, and Java. Sluggish and “gentle,’’ but because 
of its great size able to constrict, crush, and bite. (Courtesy National Zoological Park.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cochran PLATE 23 


1. Rock python (Python sebae). Color: pale brown above, with dark brown sinuous cross bars; sides witb 
large and small dark spots. Length: 25 to 30 feet. Range: Central and South Africa. Able to crush and 
constrict because of its great strength, as well as to bite savagely if disturbed. (Courtesy Philadelphia 
Zoological Society.) 


~ eee 


2. Gould’s monitor (Varanus gouldii). Color: blackish with yellow dots in rosettes on the back. Length: 
about 5 feet. Range: Australia and New Guinea. Like others of this genus, it fights with teeth and claws 
and threshing tail when threatened. (Courtesy National Zoological Park.) 


THE PLANTS OF CHINA AND THEIR USEFULNESS TO 
MAN 


By Easpert H. WALKER 
Assistant Curator, Division of Plants, U. S. National Museum 


[With 12 plates] 


Foreigners traveling in China are struck by the contrast between 
the barren, treeless mountains and hills, with here and there small 
patches of dense forest hiding the picturesque temples, and the inten- 
sively cultivated fertile valleys or strikingly terraced hillsides. 
Scholars delving into the history of the people or the causes for the 
locations of the present centers of population find that the plants 
and their distribution, past and present, lie at the base of many 
problems. Foreign residents meet curiosity-arousing plants on their 
rambles or strange plant foods on their tables. The great majority 
of the Chinese people are farmers, a much larger proportion than 
in America. Likewise most merchants are constantly dealing with 
plants or plant products in their business transactions. These and 
many other considerations stress the importance to China of her plants 
and vegetation. 

The flora of China is the richest of any temperate region in the 
world and is one of the most, if not the most, important and useful to 
man. Although it has long been explored and studied, no one has 
yet prepared a manual of the flora of this vast area or of any major 
part of it comparable to our well-known Gray’s Manual of Botany 
or Britton and Brown’s Illustrated Flora of the Northern States and 
Canada. 


HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF BOTANY IN CHINA 


How we have come to know about this plant wealth is important 
in understanding what we know about it and where to find the re- 
corded knowledge. Recently a student came to the Smithsonian In- 
stitution to find a detailed map showing the distribution of the vege- 
tation in China and its character in every locality. Had he under- 
stood the stage of development of our knowledge of the botany of 
China, he would have known that no such map existed and that the 

566766—44-_22 325 


326 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


materials from which one could be prepared are widely scattered, 
very incomplete, greatly generalized, and often very unreliable. It 
is therefore of advantage to trace the history of the botany of China 
before viewing the vegetation as a whole and examining some of its 
principal component parts; that is, the individual species, of which 
there are over 15,000 now known, with hundreds of new species being 
described every year. 

This history has three branches: the first, the accumulation of 
knowledge now represented in the rich Chinese literature prepared 
before the advent of modern science; the second, the development of 
scientific knowledge by westerners; and the third, as yet only a vig- 
orous shoot scarcely 25 years old, the development of Chinese scien- 
tific botanists and institutions. 


PRESCIENTIFIC STUDY BY CHINESE 


Chinese nonscientific knowledge can be traced back to the mytho- 
logical emperor and scholar, Shen Nung, who is supposed to have 
lived some 2,000 years B. C. In the third century B. C. a diction- 
ary of terms, including botanical names, which were used in the an- 
cient Chinese classics, was compiled by Chou Kung under the title 
“Ehr yah.” In 1590 appeared the most important of all Chinese 
botanical works, the herbal called “Pén ts’ao kang mu,” by Li Shih- 
chen, a record of all knowledge of Chinese medicinal plants. Since 
that time many editions of this famous work have been prepared, 
as well as other herbals. Most of the data recorded in these numer- 
ous Chinese works are agricultural, medicinal, or economic. Valu- 
able information on plants is inscribed in the huge Chinese encyclo- 
pedias, which are often so large as to dwarf our familiar reference 
works of this type. More information is buried in the numerous pro- 
vincial and regional gazeteers. A few western scholars of the Chi- 
nese language, or Sinologues, have delved into these storehouses of 
literature and have made translations of scattered portions, but the 
bulk of this material is still hidden from modern scientists in the 
intricacies of the Chinese language. It is of relatively little value 
to us from the purely scientific point of view but is of use in the field 
of economic botany. 


STUDY BY WESTERNERS 


The growth of our western scientific knowledge of the plants of 
China shows a steadily increasing seriousness in its scientific objectives, 
progressive changes in the nationality and qualifications of its workers, 
expansion of the areas where they worked, and changes in the loca- 
tion of the centers in which they labored. The earliest westerners 
who came to China were much interested in the strange new fruits 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 327 


and economic plants which were used by the Chinese people and 
which happened to come to their attention. Later westerners made 
more serious search for plants grown in Chinese gardens and shipped 
cuttings and seeds home so that their own gardens and greenhouses 
might be enriched. Later still definite exploration for useful plants 
was undertaken, from which developed scientific botanical exploration 
and the collecting of herbarium specimens of all species. The first 
westerners who concerned themselves with the plants of China were 
traders whose primary interest was business. These were followed by 
specially employed plant explorers, the earliest of whom were not 
highly trained as botanists. Later came better-qualified men to 
gather and interpret the wealth of botanical material so much desired 
by horticulturists, agriculturists, and scientists in the west. It is 
specially significant that almost all the European countries and the 
United States were interested in exploring for China’s botanical 
treasures, for the open-door policy in China prevented any one nation 
from excluding the others. In the beginning, of course, all material 
collected was sent back home, so that today the important scientific 
collections are scattered throughout Europe and the United States. 
Later, when stable centers were established in or near China, botanical 
work was carried on from places nearer the collecting grounds, and at 
least part of the material was retained in the country. Soon after 
Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain in 1841, the Hong Kong 
Botanical Garden and herbarium were established, and similar 
institutions in various places were started as opportunities opened 
up. In the earlier part of the present century western missionary 
schools, colleges, and universities were founded and, together with 
various native Chinese schools and institutions, undertook botanical 
work. Until recently most of the basic or purely technical study has 
been done in Europe or America, Jargely because the institutions in 
China lacked the basic scientific collections so essential to such studies, 
but now much is being done by Chinese in China. 

This story of Chinese botany is closely bound up with the pro- 
gressive opening up of China to western penetration. At first only 
the prized plants of Chinese gardens in the few coastal cities open to 
foreign trade were known. Later the foreigners were permitted under 
special restrictions to explore the nearby hills. Still later, when the 
great diplomatic missions were allowed to travel overland between 
Peiping and the southern ports, glimpses were obtained of the botani- 
cal wealth of the interior. Following the opium wars, 1840 to 1861, 
permission was wrested from the reluctant Chinese rulers to penetrate 
farther inland and to establish consulates, customs stations, mission 
compounds, and other centers from which botanical work could be 
conducted. Eventually botanical explorers began to enter the back 


328 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


door of China from Burma and to scour the far distant borderland 
and even the still largely forbidden land of Tibet. Now the eastern 
part of China is closed to all outsiders except the Japanese, and the 
westerners can enter only by the back door. 

Of course the first westerner to observe the plants of China was the 
Italian merchant Marco Polo. His written accounts of what he saw 
contain many references to the plants and vegetation and are of some 
use in reconstructing a picture of the vegetation in the thirteenth 
century, so different in many places from that found today. But to 
scientific knowledge Marco Polo made almost no contribution. 

From the rediscovery of China by the Portuguese in 1516 to the ex- 
clusion of the western botanists from eastern China after “Pearl 
Harbor,” there has been a steady accumulation of knowledge of 
Chinese botany by the west. Following on the heels of the Portuguese 
traders came Jesuit missionaries, who, unlike the merchants, pene- 
trated far into the interior. In 1601 the Dutch arrived but their pred- 
ecessors, the Portuguese, were too well established to permit these 
newcomers to do much in China, so the Dutch concentrated their efforts 
on Japan and were more important in the botanical history of that 
country. They introduced tea into Europe soon after their first ar- 
rival. The English came in 1637 and the French at a somewhat later 
date. When the Swedish botanist Linnaeus wrote his epoch-making 
Species Plantarum, published in 1758, he had access to a surprising 
number of Chinese plants brought by the Swedish sea captains or sent 
by various traders established in the few coastal ports then available, 
especially by the enterprising chaplain Peter Osbeck at Canton. As 
these treasures from the east and other parts of the world reached 
Europe, gardens were established for their cultivation and herbaria 
were built for their preservation. Scientific societies were formed to 
promote world exploration and to study the accumulated specimens. 
Thus grew the famous Chelsea Physic Garden in London and the 
Royal Gardens, the latter now the world-famous Royal Botanic Gardens 
at Kew, almost universally known simply as Kew. Likewise there were 
established the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and botanical gardens in 
Leiden, Geneva, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere. After 1800 
there was developed the Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta with its 
eminent botanists, especially Wallich and Roxburgh. The Royal 
Horticultural Society, the Linnaean Society of London, and other 
scientific organizations were founded, and botany thrived throughout 
Europe. Governments became interested in the subject, and botanists 
accompanied many of the world exploring expeditions that were so 
popular during the eighteenth century and the first half of the nine- 
teenth. All these foreigners except the Russians began their activities 
in China at coastal cities. The Russians, however, pushed overland and 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 329 


entered China from the north as part of their exploration of Siberia 
and adjacent lands, and today the basic botanical collections from 
northern and northwestern China are to be found in Leningrad. 

The first real American botanical interest in China came with the 
famous Perry expedition, which forced Japan to open her doors to 
foreign trade in 1854. Charles Wright, the botanist of the expedition, 
collected in China only about Hong Kong and Canton. His collec- 
tions were studied by our own famous Asa Gray, working closely with 
European botanists. Sets of duplicates were sent to London, St. 
Petersburg, and probably Paris or Berlin. The famous Russian 
botanist, C. J. Maximowicz, founded several new species on Wright’s 
collections. 

Numerous famous botanists were associated with various aspects of 
this increasing interest in botanical exploration. Robert Fortune ex- 
plored the coastal regions of eastern China from 18438 to 1861, largely 
for the Royal Horticultural Society of London, and practically ex- 
hausted the possibilities of Chinese gardens as sources of material for 
cultivation in Europe. He wrote several very readable books on his 
explorations, and from Chekiang and Fukien he obtained tea plants 
from which were developed the now extensive and important tea 
plantations in northern India. He was unable, however, because of 
restrictions on travel, to penetrate very far into the back country. 

The most learned botanical scholar in China in the nineteenth cen- 
tury was probably H. F. Hance, a consular officer established in Hong 
Kong and Whampoa below Canton. He accumulated there a fine 
herbarium, wrote scholarly botanical papers, and corresponded ex- 
tensively with other botanists and collectors in the east. His herbar- 
ium eventually reached the British Museum. Charles Ford and 
various others were in charge of the Hong Kong Botanical Garden and 
enriched these collections by exploring southern and southeastern 
China. Augustine Henry was a medical officer and assistant in the 
Chinese Maritime Customs, who was stationed at various times in 
Formosa and Hainan, and at Ichang in Hupeh, and Mengtze and 
Szemao in Yunnan. He was much interested in studying the economic 
botany of the country and collected, with the aid of Chinese assistants, 
thousands of herbarium specimens, which were sent to Kew, whence 
duplicates were distributed to various herbaria throughout the world. 
They are now considered among the best and most important of all 
botanical collections from China. Besides collecting herbarium ma- 
terial, Henry observed the uses made of these plants and wrote an 
important account of the economic plants of the country. 

Among prosperous businessmen in Shanghai around 1870 was an 
energetic American, F. B. Forbes, who delighted in collecting plants 
on his week-end houseboat trips in the vicinity. Having need for a 


330 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


list of the known plants of China, he persuaded the famous British 
botanist, W. B. Hemsley, who named his collections, to prepare a list 
of all the known plants of China. This project developed into the 
only comprehensive enumeration of all the plants of China ever writ- 
ten, namely, An Enumeration of All the Plants Known from China 
Proper, Formosa, Hainan, Corea, the Luchu Archipelago and the 
Island of Hongkong, published between 1886 and 1905. Forbes’ name 
appears as first author, but, although he made some contributions, the 
work is largely the result of Hemsley’s effort. It was never intended 
to be a manual for ready identification of the plants mentioned and is 
now greatly out of date. It is important, however, as it brings together 
the scattered material published up to that time. 

In 1899 the search in China for ornamental and other useful plants 
was renewed with great vigor. In that year E. H. Wilson, trained as 
a gardener at Kew, was sent to China by the famous horticultural con- 
cern, Veitch & Sons, of England, with the encouragement of C. S. 
Sargent, founder of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. 
Wilson subsequently made several trips for this American scientific 
institution, the first in this country to interest itself seriously in the 
Asiatic treasures. Following Wilson there came three Britishers: 
George Forrest, who died in Yunnan; Reginald Farrer, famous for 
his additions to English garden plants; and Francis Kingdon Ward, 
who is still exploring in Asia. Austria was represented by Camillo 
Schneider and H. Handel-Mazzetti, the latter marooned in China by 
the First World War. American workers included Frank N. Meyer, 
pioneer plant explorer for the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, who was drowned in the Yangtze River (pl. 11, fig. 1); P. H. 
Dorsett, another Government explorer of North China in the 1920's, 
now deceased; and J. F. Rock, an enthusiastic collector in western 
China for our Government and other organizations, recently returned 
from Yunnan, Most of these men and others were employed pri- 
marily. to bring back seeds and cuttings of economically useful plants 
and more or less incidentally to make scientific herbarium collections. 
However, their dried specimens and technical publications have con- 
tributed greatly to the knowledge we have today of the rich flora of 
China. Because they were especially interested in plants for cultiva- 
tion. in temperate Europe and America, they confined their en- 
deavors largely to the rich hunting grounds of western China, first 
explored about 1870 by the French missionary-explorer, Armand 
David. Frank N. Meyer and P. H. Dorsett, however, made especially 
valuable discoveries of little-known cultivated plants in northern, cen- 
tral, and eastern China. Meyer, furthermore, penetrated into Chinese 
Turkestan and beyond. ; 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 331 


THE BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY BY THE CHINESE 


Until about 1918 practically all the scientific botanical work in China 
was done by foreigners from Europe and America, who took back to 
their home countries all their valuable collections. But following the 
Chinese Revolution in 1911, the idea was developed of initiating simi- 
lar work by Chinese as part of the modernization of China. In 1916 
the staff of Canton Christian College, now called Lingnan University, 
started accumulating a herbarium with the encouragement of W. T. 
Swingle, of the United States Department of Agriculture, and of E. D. 
Merrill, then director of the Bureau of Science in Manila, and estab- 
lished a department of botany where students were trained to do re- 
search work. F.A.McClure,a member of the staff, a plant explorer of 
many parts of South China, especially of Hainan, and collaborator 
with the United States Department of Agriculture, undertook the in- 
vestigation of the bamboos for the purpose of training Chinese stu- 
dents in scientific research. About the same time Nanking University, 
another mission school, and National Southeastern University, a gov- 
ernment institution, now called National Central University, started 
herbaria and undertook similar work. Gradually other schools, espe- 
cially those under the Government, inspired by the examples of the 
earlier ones and staffed by their graduates or by botanists trained 
abroad, instituted botanical research. In the beginning various for- 
eign foundations fostered these developments by direct or indirect 
means, and later, Chinese scientific societies and other organizations 
aided their growth. Soon the initiative in botanical work was taken 
by trained Chinese botanists, most of them with degrees from American 
or European universities. At first these herbaria were dependent on 
foreign specialists for most of the naming of their collection, because 
the basic collections needed for comparison were in Europe and Amer- 
ica, and library facilities in China were inadequate. But gradually 
these obstacles have been overcome by obtaining photographs or dupli- 
cates of important collections or by making new collections which were 
carefully compared with the older ones, and by buying books or getting 
photostats or other reproductions. Now many parts of China have 
been explored by Chinese botanists and large collections of valuable 
material have been accumulated. These workers have been able to 
penetrate areas either not accessible to foreigners or not worth their 
exploring because of their primary interest in horticulturally useful 
material from temperate regions. 

There has thus been a steadily increasing interest in Chinese botany 
from the time of the first Portuguese trader to the establishing of 
modern herbaria and scientific research by Chinese institutions. Much 
has already been learned, but there still remains extensive work to 
be done. 


332 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


THE PRESENT STATUS OF CHINESE BOTANY 


The principal botanical centers in China before the war were Canton, 
the Nanking-Shanghai area, and Peiping, with some activity in Sze- 
chwan. In Canton were Lingnan University and Sunyatsen Uni- 
versity. In Nanking were Nanking University and National Central 
University, the Academia Sinica, and the Botanical Laboratory of the 
Science Society of China. In Peiping the principal institutions were 
the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology and the National Academy of 
Peiping, the former especially interested in southwestern China, the 
latter centering its activities largely in Mongolia and Sinkiang, or 
Chinese Turkestan. On Lu Shan near Kiu Kiang, in Kiangsi Prov- 
ince was the Lu Shan Arboretum under the Fan Memorial Institute 
of Biology. This arboretum is now established in Likiang, Yunnan. 
Besides these major centers many other colleges, universities, and 
societies were engaged in botanical work, such as Amoy University, 
which was especially interested in marine algae, Hong Kong University, 
National Wuhan University, Kwangsi University, Science Institute 
of West China, and others. 

It is of considerable interest and of no little importance in the light 
of Chinese-American relations to note that most of this work by 
Chinese botanists has its roots in American activity in China. Thus 
their methods and points of view are primarily American rather than 
European, and a far larger proportion have degrees from American 
than from European universities. In Japan the reverse is true. 

Of the many fine Chinese botanists, one of the most outstanding 
is Dr. H. H. Hu, head of the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology, a 
graduate of Harvard University, now president of Chung Cheng Uni- 
versity (Chiang Kai-shek University) at Taiho, southwestern Kiangsi 
Province. Prof. W. Y. Chun, of Sunyatsen University, also a Harvard 
student, whose present location is unknown, is especially versed in the 
flora of southeastern China and Hainan, where he has collected ex- 
tensively. On the fall of Canton to the Japanese forces he established 
the university’s herbarium temporarily in Kowloon in British territory 
opposite Hong Kong Island and saved most of the collections. The col- 
lections he could not remove from Canton are reported to have been 
taken by the Japanese to Formosa. We have no knowledge of what 
happened on the fall of Hong Kong. R.C. Ching (pl. 11, fig. 2), head 
of the Lu Shan Arboretum in Likiang, Yunnan Province, is the fore- 
most authority on ferns, and Dr. Y. L. Keng, of National Central 
University in Chungking, is a thorough scholar who has specialized 
on the grasses of China. Prof. W. P. Fang, of National Szechwan 
University, Omei Hsien in Szechwan Province, is working on the 
flora of that region and has made extensive collections. Dr. Tseng 
Cheng-kwei, who is still in America, is a specialist on marine algae, 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 333 


and Li Liang-ching, last heard from at the Fan Memorial Institute of 
Biology in Peiping, is an authority on fresh-water algae. Dr. Tai 
Fang-lan, a student of fungi, was at least formerly with National 
Tsinghua University, now joined in exile with the National Southwest 
Union University in Kunming, Yunnan. At this same Union Uni- 
versity is C. Y. Chang, a plant morphologist. Many others, equally 
worthy of mention, are in various places unknown to us because of the 
wartime disruption of communication. Whereas in former years in- 
quiries about Chinese plants were usually directed to some foreign 
institution, now they can be directed to Chinese botanists at home. 

Even at the present time botanical work is going forward in China. 
Research and even exploration is being carried out, although on a 
small scale and under tremendous handicaps, and scientific papers 
are occasionally printed. Exchange of publications with western na- 
tions is impossible, except as many scientific periodicals in America 
are being microfilmed and sent by mail through cooperation with the 
Cultural Relations Division of the United States Department of 
State. 

It should not be forgotten, however, that much botanical work on 
Chinese plants is still being done by westerners in America and 
Europe. Dr. E. D. Merrill, director of the Arnold Arboretum of 
Harvard University, is the foremost authority in America, and that 
institution, along with the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. 
has the finest collection of Chinese herbarium specimens in the United 
States. The United States National Herbarium in Washington has 
many thousands of specimens in the care of the present writer, who 
is especially interested in the plants of China. The New York Bo- 
tanical Garden, the University of California, and the Missouri 
Botanical Garden also have large Chinese herbaria. In Europe the 
largest collection is probably at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, but 
very large and important deposits are at the British Museum in 
London and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. In Berlin 
there was developed a large and very important herbarium, which 
is reported to have been almost completely destroyed in March 1943 
in a bombing raid. Other important collections are in Paris, Vienna, 
Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Leningrad. 


THE LITERATURE ON CHINESE PLANTS 


Ever since the time of Marco Polo and the earliest Portuguese 
explorations, people have been writing about the plants of China. 
There is now a tremendous literature written in almost every Euro- 
pean and Far Eastern language and in the books and periodicals of 
almost every country. It deals with these plants from almost every 
point of view, taxonomic, economic, agricultural, geographical, and 


304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


others. Because these plants from China have found their way 
into cultivation in all parts of the world, horticultural and agricul- 
tural literature is full of valuable accounts of interest to students 
of Chinese botany. Much of the literature is highly technical and 
would be of little interest to the general reader. Very little of a 
popular nature has been written on the plants as a whole; indeed the 
subject is so vast and there is so much even yet unknown that it is 
a difficult task to treat the flora as a whole. Everyone in China who 
is interested in plants longs for a manual by which he can learn the 
scientific, Chinese, and sometimes the common English names of the 
trees, shrubs, and herbs about him, but no one has yet undertaken to 
write such a comprehensive work. For a few restricted areas there 
are such books, but they are of little use outside their boundaries. A 
few years, ago Dr. E. D. Merrill and the writer compiled A Biblio- 
graphy of Eastern Asiatic Botany, listing over 21,000 titles of books 
and papers on the plants of China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, 
Tibet, Japan, Formosa, Korea, and eastern Siberia. It is the most 
extensive regional plant bibliography ever published. By means of 
its extensive indexes one can find a great mass of information on 
many subjects. For further details on the principal works on Chi- 
nese plants, see pp. 360-361. 


FLORAL REGIONS OF CHINA 


The great number of species of plants in China, numbering over 
15,000 seed plants and ferns alone, along with the great diversity in 
the vegetation, ranging from the steaming Tropics of Hainan Island 
to the cold, wind-swept Mongolian deserts and from the China 
Sea to the eternally snow-capped peaks of Tibet, makes the task of 
gaining a general concept of China’s flora a difficult one. The aver- 
age person in most parts of China sees, besides the well-tended plants 
in cultivated and usually irrigated fields, a limited amount of wild 
vegetation. This consists largely of scattered trees among the culti- 
vated fields (pl. 1, fig. 2) or along roadsides and paths or an occasional 
grove in or near a village (pl. 4, fig. 1). Striking oases of luxuriant 
vegetation hide the temples and monasteries scattered about the 
countryside or nestled in mountain valleys. One will notice also 
that most of these mountains and hills are covered with grass or small 
shrubs (pl. 1, fig. 1), or bear scattered pine trees of no great size 
(pl. 2). But if one travels into the interior on the divides between 
the major rivers and away from tillable lands, he may find genuine 
forests, even dense primeval jungles. 

The most outstanding feature of the Chinese landscape to a new- 
comer from the west is the barren and treeless appearance of the 
hillsides throughout most of the country. Reforestation is the most 


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PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 5H 9) 


urgent economic problem in China next to that of raising enough 
food for its millions of people. 

The vegetation of China varies with respect to the rainfall and 
humidity, which are in turn governed largely by the direction of the 
winds, the seasons, and the location and altitude of the mountains, 
which rise in the west to peaks over 22,000 feet. The distribution of 
the rainfall throughout the year, the average temperature, the ex- 
tremes of temperature, the character of the soil, and various other 
factors also determine the type of vegetation found in any given area. 
As these factors differ widely throughout the country, so there is 
great variation in the vegetation. 

Geographically China can be divided into at least eight floral 
regions as follows (see also map, fig. 1, where approximate bound- 
aries are shown) : 

1. Northeastern China, including most of Korea and extending 
from northern Manchuria to the great plains of China, marked off 
from the lower Yangtze Valley by the extension of the Tsinling 
Mountains, and reaching westward to the Gobi and Ordos Deserts 
and the loess regions of Shansi. 

2. The Gobi Desert region of Mongolia, especially the southern 
part, including the Ordos. 

3. The loess region covering eastern Kansu, most of Shensi, and 
part of Shansi. 

4. Middle China, comprising the main part of the country from 
the Tsinling Mountains on the north to the Nan Shan on the South 
(that broad range which separates the watersheds of the Si Kiang 
from the Yangtze Kiang) and extending westward across the plateau 
of Yunnan and the basins and lesser mountains of Szechwan to the 
foot of the snow-capped peaks in the west. 

5. Tropical and subtropical southern China, including most of 
Kwangsi, all of Kwangtung except the most northern part, coastal 
Fukien and southern Chekiang, and of course Hong Kong and 
Hainan. 

6. Southwestern Yunnan, which has the same type of luxuriant 
tropical vegetation as adjacent Burma. 

7. The highlands of western China with their deep river gorges 
and snow-capped peaks and corresponding parts of western Szechwan 
and Kansu. 

8. The grasslands of eastern Tibet, covering parts of Sikang, Tsing- 
hai, and Kansu. 

If Tibet as a whole be included in this greater China area, two more 
floristic regions would be added, namely: (1) the northern plain or 
Chung Tang along with the Tsaidam, the part with internal drainage; 
and (2) the outer plateau, the part of Tibet drained by several rivers 
which flow through great gorges across the Himalayan Range. 


336 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


These divisions are not clearly marked off from each other, but 
gradually intergrade. Of course it must not be supposed that the 
vegetation is uniform within these divisions; it actually varies con- 
siderably according to soil, altitude, and climate. Also in general 
aspect the vegetation in most parts has been enormously changed by 
man from that which unhindered Nature has developed. In fact, 
to a very large extent we can only determine what is the normal 
vegetation by careful study of the few remnants which man has not 
yet altered. 

The plants that compose the vegetation of these regions can be 
divided according to their geographic affinities. For example, the 
banyan trees of southern China occur elsewhere only in southern 
Asia, and the species of pines found in Manchuria occur elsewhere 
only in Siberia and northeastern Asia. Thus the plants of China 
can be divided into the following eight groups based on their geo- 
graphic affinities, with the addition of a ninth group, if the strictly 
cultivated plants be considered as part of the flora of the country. 

1. Palaearctic, consisting of plants which occur in northern Asia, 
often also in Europe and northern North America. 

2. Central Asiatic, occurring in Turkestan and vicinity, usually 
also in Asia Minor and often even in northern Africa. 

3. Himalayan, consisting of plants found in the temperate and 
alpine parts of this vast range south of Tibet. 

4. Indo-Malayan, the plants which are found exclusively or nearly 
so in Indo-China, the Malay Peninsula, and the East Indies. 

5. Insular or Japanese, including plants extending over Hokkaido, 
Japan proper, the Liu Kiu Islands, and Formosa. 

6. North American, consisting of that group of plants found in 
eastern Asia and eastern North America, which has been of so much 
interest to plant geographers. 

7. Cosmopolitan, those which occur so widely distributed over the 
world that they cannot be considered as indigenous of any one part. 

8. Endemics, or those plants, either species, genera, or even fam- 
ilies, which occur nowhere else. 

The following discussion is mainly concerned with the floral re- 
gions, because considerable knowledge of the distribution of plants 
is needed in order to understand floral affinities. However, these re- 
lationships will be considered in connection with each region. 


NORTHEASTERN CHINA 


This floral region includes Manchuria, most of Korea, the great 
plain of China in Shantung, Shansi, Chihli or Hopei, and most of Ho- 
nan, and extends south over northern Anhwei and Kiangsu. It is 
bounded on the west by the loess deposits of Shansi and Shensi and 


PLANTS OF CHINA—-WALKER Bae 


the desert and grasslands of Mongolia, including the Ordos Desert in 
the great bend of the Yellow River. This is a region of rather se- 
vere winters and adequate, but not extremely abundant, rainfall. 
The climate is greatly influenced by the monsoon winds, although less 
so than in the regions farther south, and is not extremely continental, 
as is that of Mongolia and of central and northern Asia. 

The characteristic plants are broadleaved deciduous Temperate 
Zone trees and shrubs, the genera of which are mostly familiar to 
people of eastern North America, such as oak, maple, birch, beech, ash, 
walnut, elm, willow, etc. There are many conifers, such as larch, 
spruce, fir, and pine, but they are found in less abundance or on the 
higher mountains. Bamboos are found in northern Korea. In Man- 
churia and northeastern Asia occurs that gorgeous phenomenon of 
autumn leaf coloration, so familiar to us in the northeastern United 
States and Canada, but occurring nowhere else in the world to such a 
degree. 

Throughout most of this region in China proper the trees now 
occur singly or in small groves. Originally great forests extended 
almost unbroken, though changing in constitution, from Manchuria 
and even farther north, all the way down through eastern China to 
the tropical jungles. There remain today large forests in northern 
Korea and in some of the mountainous parts of Manchuria. These 
forests furnish much valuable timber for use in northern China and 
even for export to Japan and elsewhere. Until about 30 years ago 
there were some magnificent forests east, west, and north of Peip- 
ing, which were saved by the emperors for hunting preserves; but, 
with the passing of the last imperial dynasty and the uncontrolled 
pressure of the population for forest resources, these have rapidly 
dwindled to almost nothing. In Shansi has occurred the same phe- 
nomenon; the once great forests on Wu Tai Shan described in early 
Chinese literature have steadily dwindled till now there is almost 
nothing left. The tragic story of this mountain has been ably told 
by W. C. Lowdermilk and Dean R. Wickes under the title “History 
of Soil Use in the Wu T’ai Shan Area.”1+ This account, prepared in 
connection with our own Government’s soil conservation efforts, was 
traced largely from the records found in various Chinese works. 

In north-central Shensi, north of the loess-filled valley of the Wei 
Ho and south of the loess area of the northern part of the province, 
are some forests of pine, birch, and poplar, which might be considered 
as belonging to this floristic region. It has been reported that in this 
wild area, partly denuded in earlier years, the forests returned to some 
extent after the destruction of the population in the great Moham- 


1 Published as a monograph issued under, the auspices of the North China Branch of the 
Royal Asiatic Society, 31 pp., illustrated, 1938. 


338 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


medan rebellion of 1867 to 1878. In the mountainous or hilly Shan- 
tung Peninsula the original forests have disappeared and been re- 
placed in small part through scientific reforestation, in some cases 
with foreign trees such as American black locust, Scotch pine, and 
others. This work was started when the area was partially under 
German control. 

The ranges of many of the dominant plants of this northeastern 
region extend northward into Siberia. These species are thus con- 
sidered as Palaearctic. There are, however, a number of endemic 
species of considerable importance. Here occur also a number of 
plants belonging to the eastern Asiatic-eastern North American group, 
as for example the popular oriental medicinal plant ginseng. 


THE GOBI DESERT REGION 


The Gobi Desert region covers most of Inner and Outer Mongolia 
and includes the Ordos Desert within the great bend of the Yellow 
River. It is really the eastern end of the great desert region that 
extends from northern Africa across Arabia, Iran, central Asia, 
northern Tibet, and Sinkiang or Chinese Turkestan. The flora of all 
these regions is closely related, the ranges of many species found in the 
Gobi Desert extending far to the west, some even to Africa. The driest 
and most desertlike part is in the south, roughly along the line of the 
Yellow River, where are found in places, especially in the Ordos and 
in eastern Kansu, large wind-blown sand dunes with no vegetation 
to hold them in check. Elsewhere are rock-strewn plains or hills with 
an occasional, usually dry, watercourse, along which occurs'some vege- 
tation consisting largely of drought-resistant, dull green shrubs, trees, 
and grasses. Just north of the Yellow River he paralleling mountain 
ranges, the Alashan and In Shan, which are high enough to intercept 
in summer the remnants of the monsoon winds from the southeast and 
to drain from the clouds sufficient moisture to maintain forests of 
spruce, pine, and poplar. Toward the southeast, east, and north 
the desert becomes more moist and merges into grasslands, which 
in turn merge on the north into the forests or steppes of Siberia and 
on the east into the Manchurian forests. 

There are of course very few trees and shrubs in the true desert. 
Those which can survive the extremes of this severe continental climate 
and the scant moisture are mostly willows, elms, poplars, tamarisks, 
saxauls, and a few others. The saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) is 
the most characteristic plant of this desert as of all central Asia. It 
is a leafless tree, rarely reaching 30 feet in height, with green branches, 
and is a member of the goosefoot family (Chenopodiacae), which 
is largely composed of herbs and semiwoody shrubs. The garden 
beet and the common lamb’s-quarters or pigweed of our gardens and 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 339 


waste places belong in this family. A favorite food of the camels 
and other browsing desert animals is the nitre bush (Witraria scho- 
beri) of the caltrop family (Zygophyllaceae), which grows in the 
saline soil so common in deserts. It isalsoan emergency food for man. 
The characteristic central Asiatic desert vegetation is largely com- 
posed of other members of these same families and of the orpine and 
tamarisk families (Crassulaceae and Tamaricaceae, respectively), and 
certain genera and species of the mustard (Cruciferae), pea (Legum- 
inosae, especially the spiny caraganas), pink (Caryophyllaceae), and 
other families as well as euphorbs, sedges, and grasses. The interest- 
ing drug plant H’phedra, rather new in western medicine, but long used 
by the Chinese, is found in the desert. 

There are no endemics in this flora, a fact of considerable im- 
portance in considerations of the extent to which the deserts of Asia 
may be man-made and how much they are the result of natural condi- 
tions. Whatever may be the answer to the question of the origin of the 
Gobi Desert, we are very sure that it is gradually extending itself east- 
ward and southward and encroaching on the more habitable lands 
which man needs. Besides the unmistakable historical evidence for 
this progressive desiccation, which is to be found in ancient written 
records, in the reports by people still living, telling of present desola- 
tion where once they saw green fields, and in the ruins of once prosper- 
ous cities now buried in sand, we have botanical evidence in the buried 
and fossilized remains of trees of species which can grow only under 
more moist conditions than now exist. Other evidence is seen in the re- 
mains of Chinese agricultural activity north of the Great Wall, where 
now it is impossible, and in the increasing occurrence of dust storms 
spreading down over China, even as far as Canton. Probably, this pro- 
gressive desiccation is a result of a progressive change in climate, and 
nothing will stop it except a reversal of the trend. In this advance of 
the desert the conifers succumb first, and then the maples, oaks, walnuts, 
and other hardwood trees. The poplars, elms, and willows survive 
the longest, and these constitute the principal trees found today in the 
towns and cities along the Yellow River and the edge of the Gobi 
Desert. In some places one finds the fruitful jujubes or Chinese dates 
cultivated or wild. For people who are accustomed to seeing the best 
of woods used in ship construction it is rather hard to imagine boats 
made of willow planks, but, having no better material available, boat- 
builders on parts of the Yellow River or Hoangho must of necessity 
use this material. 

THE LOESS REGION 


The dust blown out of the Gobi Desert has throughout the ages 
settled down on regions to the south, building up great deposits of 
the distinctive material called loess. This deposit varies in thickness 


340 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


from a few inches to several hundred feet and covers a large area in 
Kansu, Shensi, and Shansi. (For approximate location, see map, fig. 1.) 
The climate of this area is essentially continental, and the vegetation 
is scarcely better off for quantity of moisture than is that in the Gobi 
and Ordos Deserts. Most of the rain comes in July and August. How- 
ever, the fine loess soil holds by capillarity the water which it does 
receive and raises it from the water table to heights where deep-rooted 
plants can reach and use it. The loess itself is highly fertile, and good 
crops of shallow-rooted plants can be grown where sufficient water 
can be brought to the fields. Thus, the loess region is better provided 
with vegetation than is the desert, but yet, as compared with the rest 
of China, the plant cover is woefully thin. In composition this vege- 
tation is closely related to that of central Asia and the desert regions. 
Jujubes, poplars, elms, and willows constitute the principal woody 
plants. There are no endemics. In all probability forests grew here 
in former times, but scarcely any remnants are left today. As wood is 
lacking there is little fuel and practically no timber for building, but 
the happy circumstance that the loess deposits can be tunneled into 
without caving in enables whole villages to be carved out of the cliffs, 
and wood need be used only for doors, window frames, furniture, and 
farm implements. As the walls of these cave dwellings conduct little 
heat, the houses are cool in summer and warm in winter. 

The great problem in the loess region is that of erosion by water and 
by wind, aided by violent earthquakes. With such unstable conditions 
prevailing and with the inhabitants scraping the hillsides for every 
possible bit of fuel, a thriving native vegetation could hardly be 
expected. 

7 MIDDLE CHINA 


The bulk of the flora which is commonly thought of as character- 
istically Chinese is found in the great basin or basins of the Yangtze 
River and its tributaries. This is the largest floral province in China 
and extends from the Tsinling Mountains, southern Honan, and north- 
central Anhwei and Kiangsu on the north to the northern border of 
Kwangsi, the northern portion of Kwangtung, and southern Fukien, 
and from the coast of the China Sea, except parts of Fukien and 
Chekiang, westward to the lower parts of the high snow-clad moun- 
tains in the west. The plateau of Yunnan lies within this floral area. 
The Tsinling Range on the north effectively cuts off the cold winds of 
central Asia and permits the vegetation toward the south to thrive 
under the more benign influence of the summer monsoon from the 
southeast. Hence, in contrast with the cool-temperate flora of north- 
eastern China and the desert vegetation of the Gobi and loess regions, 
we find in middle China a warm-temperate or even, in places, a sub- 
tropical vegetation. It varies, of course, with the distance from the 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 341 


sea and the consequent intensity of the rainfall and its distribution 
through the growing season. The monsoon reaches the Yangtze River 
in April and Kansu in late summer. Furthermore, the regularity of 
the monsoon winds decreases toward the north, where, because of the 
caprices of these winds, occur most of the well-known periodic famines 
of China. For instance, that of 1877 and 1879 in Shansi was the result 
of a continuous current of air flowing down the Yangtze Valley which 
prevented the monsoon winds from the south or southeast from reach- 
ing northern China as they usually do. 

As in most of the northeastern floristic region and in the semi- 
tropical part to the south one of the most significant features of the 
vegetation in middle China is its alteration by man. Wherever agri- 
culture is at all possible, we find the native wild vegetation entirely 
replaced. The demands of the dense population for fuel and other 
plant products are so great that the original vegetation on the neigh- 
boring hills, which cannot be cultivated, has been largely destroyed. 
Only the hardiest native plants remain, unless protected by temples 
or monasteries or sometimes by enterprising villages in communal 
forests or woods. True forests remain only where they cannot be ex- 
ploited profitably because of their distance from rivers on which logs 
can be floated to market. Im consequence of the almost complete 
alteration of the native vegetation in the various large basins and 
valleys which comprise this area, we can learn of the original vegeta- 
tion of middle China only by studying the forests still remaining on 
the major divides. 

The northernmost forested area is the Tsinling Range lying south 
of the loess area and dividing the Wei and Han Rivers in southern 
Shensi. It extends eastward into Honan where it is much less prom- 
inent. The eastern part of this range reaches up to 12,000 feet in 
places, high enough to have subalpine rhododendron thickets above 
a zone of firs (Adzes), pines, birches, and willows. Somewhat lower 
down, especially on the southern side of the range, occur forests of 
deciduous broadleaved trees, as in northeastern China, but containing 
species less tolerant of the severe winters of that area, such as ash, 
liquidamber, Fortunea, Paulownia, Catalpa, Ailanthus or tree-of- 
heaven, and even bamboo. 

South of the upper part of the Han River, forming the northern and 
eastern border of Szechwan, lies the Ta Pan Shan, which, together 
with the Tsinling Shan, is the eastward extension of the Kuenlun 
Range separating Turkestan from the Tibetan Plateau. Forests of 
great commercial importance are found in the Ta Pan Shan in 
Szechwan, southern Shensi and western Hupeh. From them much 
timber and many other products, such as various gums, resins, nut 
galls, edible fungi, and medicinal plants, are exported to adjacent 

566766—44_23 


342 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN iNSTITUTION, 1943 


populated areas. These forests contain many of the same species of 
trees as are found in the Tsingling Shan, with the addition of some 
more southern species such as Dalbergia hupeana, valued for its 
heavy, close-grained wood used for farm implements, oil presses, and 
similar objects. The boats built on the Han River are better than 
are those built on the Yellow River, for here are found many more 
suitable woods, among them being Paulownia and Catalpa. 

South of the Ta Pan Shan in eastern Szechwan is a hilly area where 
many trees are grown for their commercial products, especially wood 
oil (pl. 8, fig. 2), varnish (pl. 8, fig. 1), and wax, and mulberries for 
their leaves to feed silkworms, and bamboo for its multitude of uses. 
These trees are also grown throughout most of the Red Basin of 
Szechwan. This province is so well protected from the severe conti- 
nental climate of central Asia by mountains on the north and west 
that it has in places an almost subtropical vegetation. Much fog 
occurs here in summer; indeed, the name of the next province toward 
the south or southwest, Yunnan, means “south of the clouds.” The 
high humidity is especially favorable for plant growth. 

South of the Yangtze, in southern Szechwan, Kweichow, south- 
western Hupeh and western and northwestern Hunan, are more 
mountains whose forests have been saved from exploitation by their 
inaccessibility. In general, these forests have the same composition as 
those on the Ta Pan Shan, but there are in addition many species with 
more southern affinities. The important southern fir, Cunnninghamia 
lanceolata, which also is found north of the Yangtze River, but not 
north of the Han Ho, is found here. Western Hunan and the ad- 
jacent parts of eastern Kweichow have been very important centers 
of timber supply to central China for many centuries. Here are 
found pines of species different from those of northeastern China, 
also Cedrela sinensis, a northward-extending member of the mahog- 
any family (Meliaceae), the camphor tree, and nanmu (Phoebe 
nanmu), a tree of the laurel family (Lauraceae) with exceptionally 
valuable wood, various oaks and chestnuts, and many others. It has 
been reported that there are in Hunan many forests or woods planted, 
protected, and managed in a very satisfactory manner by clan effort. 
These are located away from the main traveled routes and are not com- 
monly seen by people just passing through. 

Another important forest-bearing area is the Nan Shan Range, 
a broad, irregular mountainous tract extending east from the Yunnan 
plateau and separating the Yangtze valley from that of the Si Kiang 
or West River in Kwangsi and Kwangtung. In its inaccessible parts 
are forests, primarily of the oak-chestnut formation. These are, 
however, mere remnants of the vast, rich forests which once grew here 
and include, of course, many other species than oak and chestnut. 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 343 


Along with those species which form the forest canopy are found also 
members of the tea family (Theaceae), essentially a subtropical group 
of trees and shrubs. Characteristic of the lower woody plants are 
members of the laurel family (Lauraceae). Indeed, the members of 
this group in middle China are so prominent that the vegetation of 
central China and Japan is sometimes referred to as of the “laurel 
type.” Conifers are not abundant, but the south China fir, Cunning- 
hamia lanceolata, thrives here and is the most promising tree for re- 
forestation. The more primitive people dwelling here use this species 
in maintaining forests in northern Kwangtung and elsewhere. It is 
encouraging to read that where Chinese are in close contact with these 
earlier inhabitants of the land, they are using this same species in re- 
forestation work. This fir is very easily grown, because it sprouts 
readily from the cut stumps and may be grown from cuttings. The 
only other conifer with the natural] ability to propagate vegetatively is 
the Sequoia or giant redwood of our west coast. 

The only other major forested watershed of middle China is formed 
by the mountains of southeastern Anhwei, Chekiang, Fukien, north- 
eastern Kwangtung, and the adjacent border of Kiangsi. In this area 
are still found some fine and even fairly extensive coniferous and 
broadleaved forests, the former of several valuable species, the most 
important being red pine (Pinus massoniana, pl. 2), the funeral 
cypress (Cupressus funebris) , Cryptomeria japonica, and the southern 
fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata). The principal broadleaved trees are 
camphor, oak, chestnut, and Ormosia henryi of the pea family. Many 
of the species found here occur also in western China. Although we 
commonly think of the flora of eastern China as distinct from that of 
western China, because of the different flora of the intervening area, 
yet on careful comparison the east and west are found to be too much 
alike to be properly considered as distinct. This is good evidence that 
originally the flora of the central region was the same, but that its 
character has been materially altered by man. These forests of south- 
eastern China also have definite southern affinities. In the southern 
part are many species occurring in Kwangtung, Hainan, and even 
Indo-China, but in the northern part there is a much smaller propor- 
tion of southern species. 

These forests are, of course, being extensively exploited, but Dr. 
H. H. Hu, of the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology, who explored the 
region about 1925, reports that conditions are not so serious as they 
are usually depicted by western writers and that in many regions 
the forests are properly cared for. With proper governmental pro- 
tection others can be restored. 

The plants occurring in the larger part of Yunnan belong to the 
middle China vegetation. East of the high mountains of this province 


344 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


lies a large highly dissected plateau ranging downward from about 
4,000 feet altitude. It has a warm-temperate climate with more tropi- 
cal conditions in the lower parts of the valley, as along the Yangtze. 
The vegetation of this part of Yunnan is, therefore, subtropical with 
warm-temperate elements. In general, the hills are less denuded 
than in the eastern mountains of China, owing in part to the lesser 
Chinese population and the greater abundance of Thai, Shan, and other 
non-Chinese peoples. These latter inhabitants are less agricultural 
than the Chinese, hence the wild vegetation is less disturbed. They 
do, however, affect the vegetation adversely to some extent by clearing 
the hillsides and cultivating them without terracing or using other 
means to reduce erosion. In 2 or 3 years, when the fertile soil is 
washed away, these areas are abandoned and new fields are cleared. 
The abandoned fields may eventually revert to the original forested 
condition, but only after a succession of stages, some of which are very 
undesirable. 

Taken as a whole the flora of middle China is warm temperate with 
admixtures of subtropical families, genera, and species. It is rich in 
endemics and includes most of the eastern Asiatic-eastern North Amer- 
ican species and genera (pl. 4, fig. 2). The Japanese flora, except for 
that of the more tropical parts, is essentially of the same type as that 
of middle China. 


TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL SOUTHERN CHINA 


In this area is found the extension into China of the tropical or 
subtropical jungle vegetation of Indo-China and the Malayan region. 
The area comprises all or most of Kwangsi, most of Kwangtung, the 
coastal region of Fukien and part of Chekiang and, of course, of 
the islands of Hong Kong and Hainan. The lowland vegetation of 
Formosa and that of tropical Japan are of this type. Climatically 
the region is dominated almost wholly by monsoon winds, which 
bring an abundance of rain from March or April through October, 
with relatively little rain from then till March again. The Nan 
Shan Range on the north cuts off most of the coldest winter winds 
from that direction, so the winters are milder than in middle China. 
Freezing temperatures are very rare near the coast. Judging by 
the jungles still found in Hainan and by the oases of tropical vegeta- 
tion still found in a few remote mountain ravines and around temples, 
and in comparing this area with places in other parts of the world 
which have a similar climate and formations, but which are as yet 
undevastated, it is rather clear that large broadleaved evergreen rain 
forests formerly occurred where we now find only grass-covered hills. 
The amount of cultivated land in this area is relatively small, con- 
sisting mostly of the rich delta of the West, North, and East Rivers 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 345 


and their rather narrow valleys, and of similar delta areas along 
the coast. Here the luxuriant vegetation is under complete control, 
and the hills that protrude through the delta plains are given over 
to the graves of past generations on which the cattle graze. There 
is little room for native forests and no incentive to develop them. 
Hainan Island, being more thinly populated with Chinese around the 
edges and with more primitive peoples in the interior, still has 
tropical jungles, which vary in character at different altitudes. On 
the higher parts are oak-chestnut forests with broadleaved evergreen 
rain forests below. 

Hong Kong Island and Kwangtung are botanically the best-ex- 
plored parts of China, the flora of Hong Kong published in 1861 being 
the first real plant manual of any part of the country. The flora is 
rich in species but poor in numbers of plants. In Hong Kong much 
reforestation has been carried on by the British, and the appearance 
of that island contrasts sharply with that of adjacent islands and 
the mainland. The red pine (Pinus massoniana) occurs widely 
throughout south China, usually planted more or less widely spaced 
on the mountains, but sometimes as groves, and occurs spontaneously 
as a forest tree in the mountains of Fukien and Chekiang. The wide 
spacing of the planted trees encourages the development of side 
branches, which are eventually cut off (pl. 2) and used as fuel in 
brick and lime kilns. The groves are needed for geomantic or “fung- 
shui” purposes, to propitiate the evil spirits which are popularly sup- 
posed to infest the country (pl. 4, fig. 1). 

Another common tree in the region is the banyan, of which there 
are several species (pl. 5, fig. 2). These trees have little use as fuel 
or timber. Hence they grow unmolested, spreading wide over the 
villages and temples their huge branches from thick, gnarled and fur- 
rowed trunks, which rise from a broad, often exposed base of tangled 
roots. Palm trees, mostly cultivated, can be seen in places, and 
clumps, groves, and even small planted forests of bamboo add much 
to the picturesqueness of the landscape. Planted or possibly spon- 
taneous along the muddy tidal canals and channels of the delta occurs 
the water pine (Glyptostrobus pensilis), a close relative of the bald 
cypress of our southern swamps. Strangely enough this species has 
been found in abundance growing spontaneously on hilltops in 
Kiangsi Province in middle China. Our own cypress will also grow 
in much drier situations than in its characteristic swamp habitat, 
especially with human encouragement. 

The vegetation of Kwangsi Province is very similar to that of 
Kwangtung but has more forests and perhaps a few more Indo- 
Chinese species, at least in the south. (See pl. 3). Extensive 
botanical collections have only rather recently been made, and as yet 
little has been written of the vegetation of the province as a whole. 


346 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


SOUTHWESTERN TROPICAL YUNNAN 


The southwestern part of Yunnan adjacent to Burma is under the 
influence of the monsoon winds which in summer flow from the Bay 
of Bengal laden with moisture. The lower portions of the great 
parallel gorges, which are such a prominent feature of western Yun- 
nan, lie under the influence of these winds and are filled with luxuri- 
ant rain-forest vegetation. Here most of the trees are evergreen, 
and the jungles are filled with lianas, palms, tropical nettles, and 
other characteristic plants of the dense rain forests. This floristic 
region of China is only an extension of that of Burma and Siam. 
Many of the very numerous species of plants occurring here are Indo- 
Malayan or are characteristic of tropical India. As in other tropical 
rain forests, malaria is common and conditions are unfavorable for 
human habitation. This diffculty is overcome in some of the gorges 
by building the villages high up on the sides, whence the people 
descend to the fertile river bottoms to till their crops. 

Southern Yunnan also has a highly tropical vegetation with many 
species of plants which likewise occur in Hainan and elsewhere in 
southeastern China, but with a gap between. ‘There is, however, in 
the valley of the Red River and adjacent streams a dry area of limited 
extent due to local variations in climate. 


THE HIGHLANDS OF WESTERN CHINA 


The western and northwestern portion of Yunnan is botanically 
more or less distinct from the great dissected plateau to the east and 
the monsoon-drenched mountains and lower ends of the gorges to 
the south. In these deep gorges flow the great rivers which arise 
on the Tibetan plateau and cut across the eastward and northeast- 
ward extension of the highest mountains of the world, the Himalayan 
Range. Originally these mountains extended in an east-west direc- 
tion, but their deep intersection by southward-flowing streams has left 
the intervening ridges stretching north and south. The original 
mountain peaks tower up to over 20,000 feet, well up into the regions 
of perpetual snow. It is obvious that this tremendous range in alti- 
tude and the extremely rugged character of the land would greatly 
affect the type of vegetation found in the region. 

When the moisture-laden monsoon winds from the southwest are 
forced to rise up the slopes of these mountains they lose their load 
and are dissipated. Hence the vegetation in this region is less lux- 
uriant than that farther south. Another meteorological phenomenon 
that occurs in the gorges results in very arid conditions. During the 
day the sun heats the air in these closed-in canyons to a temperature 
much above that in the side canyons and on the surrounding moun- 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 347 


tains. About the middle of the afternoon this heated air suddenly 
starts to rise and creates such a current that any attempts of moisture- 
laden monsoon winds from the southwest to penetrate the area are 
completely thwarted. This dry area occurs in the valleys of the Sal- 
ween, Mekong (pl. 7, fig. 1), and Yangtze Rivers. On the Salween 
' it begins at about the sth parallel but farther south on the other riv- 
ers. On the Yangtze it includes the gorges around the great bend 
north of Likiang. 

Thus only drought- resistant stunted shrubs and moisture-holding 
herbs can survive here and the vegetation in part is related to that of 
Central Asia. A strange exotic is an American cactus (Opuntia) 
which somehow reached this out-of-the-way land and found con- 
ditions favorable to its growth and survival. Its seeds and fruits 
are eaten by men, beasts, and birds. How it arrived is quite un- 
known. Possibly it was brought by some missionary long ago or 
possibly it came with some caravan from the Near East where it was 
introduced soon after the discovery of America. 

Higher up on the mountains occur great forests of deciduous trees 
of various kinds, then conifers in zones (pl. 6), then rhododendron 
thickets, and finally alpine formations of various kinds, especially the 
gorgeous alpine meadows. Here is found the rich vegetation so 
eagerly sought for by plant explorers in search of ornamentals for 
western gardens, especially rock gardens (pl. 5, fig. 1). This is the 
plant-lover’s paradise, for from this varied region have come many 
of our most exquisite rhododendrons, primulas, poppies, larkspurs, 
and other garden favorites. Here occur vast forests, mostly as yet 
unexploited, a future storehouse safe from the ax until railroads 
and roads have opened it up. 

The area extends northward from Yunnan through eastern Sikang 
and Tsinghai to western Kansu. It is peopled largely by Tibetans 
and has been called Tibetan China. On the east it merges with the 
more temperate or even subtropical vegetation of Szechwan and on 
the west with the grasslands of Tibet. 

In respect to affinities this rich flora contains many elements of 
the Himalayan flora of northern India, in contrast with that of 
tropical Yunnan, which is largely Indo-Malayan. It contains also 
a large number of endemics as well as elements of the flora of middle 
China. Yunnan as a whole has the richest flora of any of the 18 
provinces of China, having over 6,300 species. This is not surpris- 
ing in view of the great diversity of climatic and physiographic con- 
ditions, the proximity of a great variety of floras of different 
composition and origin, and the long uninterrupted geological history 
of the larger part of the province. 


348 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Far back in geological history, in the Oligocene period, Eurasia 
was divided by the Tethys Sea, which occupied about the present 
location of Burma, Assam, and Tibet and separated China from 
India. Asia was a continent of undulating wooded lowlands without 
high mountains. The flora was probably fairly uniform. Later 
mountains were formed which upset the climate and brought about 
a diversified flora. Finally the Himalayan uplift occurred, which 
eliminated the Tethys Sea and replaced it with the world’s highest 
mountains, through which the rivers from the uplifted Tibetan pla- 
teau cut transverse courses. In the succeeding Pleistocene period 
huge glaciers developed in these mountains and spread out north- 
ward over the southern half of Tibet and east and south over western 
Yunnan. Thus the plants of these ice-covered parts were wiped out, 
but, because of the limited spread of the glaciers eastward, the vegeta- 
tion of central and eastern Yunnan remained. It may have been 
altered and forced southward but was not destroyed. When the 
glaciers receded, this altered vegetation spread back into the released 
western part of the province, and the plants of Indo-Malaya spread 
northward again. At the same time conditions were favorable for 
the flora developed in northern India to invade this territory. Hence, 
the Yunnan flora today contains elements from the diverse floral 
regions round about, as well as remnants of the early flora developed 
in the province in earlier geological times. The lack of extensive 
glaciation in north China, such as occurred in Europe and northern 
North America, accounts in part for the richness of the flora of China 
as a whole in comparison with that of the heavily glaciated continents. 


THE GRASSLANDS OF EASTERN TIBET 


The grasslands of eastern Tibet lie in the new provinces of Sikang 
and Tsinghai west of the great mountain ranges of western China 
and extend somewhat into western Kansu Province (pl. 7, fig. 2). 
These lands are the home of the Tibetan nomads where flocks of yak 
are herded and the people live in yerts or felt tents. The vegetation 
is almost entirely composed of grasses and grasslike plants, with 
many herbs remarkable for their ability to burst forth early in the 
short growing season, cover the landscape with a riot of gorgeous 
color, and quickly ripen and shed their seeds before the early winter 
forces them into dormancy again. Shrubs and trees are few or 
wanting on the uplands, but exist in the sheltered valleys and in belts 
on the mountains, where the clouds are forced to drop more moisture. 

The vegetation of these grasslands is essentially central Asiatic and 
alpine, and the few woody plants and trees are largely of northern 
affinities. 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 349 


TIBET 


Besides the floristic provinces already discussed as extending into 
Tibet, namely, the arid valleys of the great rivers draining south- 
eastern Tibet, the high mountain vegetation of the Tibet-China bor- 
derland, and the grasslands, Tibet has two other areas. These are 
(1) the northern and northeastern parts, called by F. Kingdon Ward? 
the Chang Tang or Great Plain, including the Tsaidam in Tsinghai 
Province, the whole draining entirely into salt lakes and swamps, and 
(2) the outer plateau part north of the Himalaya Mountains drained 
by five great rivers, the Indus, Tsang Po, Salween, Mekong, and 
Yangtze. The divide between these areas is generally low and rather 
imperceptible. 

The Great Plain and Tsaidam on the north at an altitude of over 
8,000 feet have a rainfall ranging from almost nothing at all to only 
10 inches per year. The flora, according to Ward, is extremely 
meager and consists of about 53 species of plants, with only 3 woody 
genera and no endemics, nearly all being central Asiatics. A richer 
vegetation could not exist in such an extremely dry and severe climate. 

The outer plateau toward the south has a better climate, with rain- 
fall ranging from 10 to 20 inches per year. Its altitude of around 
12,000 feet, with its exposure to the cold winds of the north, permits 
only a limited and rather xerophytic flora to develop. However, there 
is sufficient moisture and protection, at least in the river valleys, for 
the development of an alpine and semidesert flora, the dominant woody 
plants being willows, poplars, junipers, and certain elms. At the 
head of the gorge country toward the east are found some forests. In 
the gravel portion of this plateau, in the vicinity of Lhassa, Ward 
reports that 541 species of plants are known. It is in this part of 
Tibet that the bulk of the population is found. 


THE ECONOMIC BOTANY OF CHINA 


CONCERNING DEFORESTATION 


The most outstanding economic problem of China is raising food 
for her more than 400 million people. So intense has become the 
struggle for food in China that little energy has been left for the 
consideration of other problems. The need for more and more food 
has been met by increasing the amount of food grown on an acre of 
land and by increasing the acreage. This has been accompanied by a 
steady increase in the human labor expended and in the taking of 
land away from other uses, notably the taking of forested land. In 
the wake of these changes have come numerous other problems which 


? See his A sketch of the geography and botany of Tibet * * *, Journ. Linnean Soc., 
Botany, vol. 50, pp. 239-265, illustr., 1935. 


350 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


have demanded adjustment, such as the loss of timber and plant cover, 
the exposure of the hills to erosion (pl. 1, fig. 1), the destruction of 
agricultural lands through washing away and silting, and a host of 
other consequences. As in other countries, the demand for increased 
crops and more tillable land has fallen on individuals and small 
groups, who in many, if not most, cases have been unable to meet the 
resulting larger problems and who have in time been reduced to the 
direst poverty or been driven away from the lands they so urgently 
need to areas where they can only eke out a bare subsistence and repeat 
the destructive processes. Thus, next to agriculture, reforestation is 
the most urgent economic botanical problem in China. Many refer- 
ences have already been made to this subject, but its importance 
justifies separate consideration. 

The major cause of forest destruction in most areas, at least in the 
past when there were extensive forests, was the need for agricultural 
land rather than for the products of the forests. The same is true in 
some regions today, as is shown by the wanton abandoning of thou- 
sands of board feet of merchantable timber, as was observed by W. C. 
Lowermilk in his studies in Shansi. After the lowlands were cleared, 
this demand for more land could be met only by terracing the hillsides 
(pl. 1, fig. 1), progressing gradually higher and higher until the slopes 
became too steep for cultivation even by these means. Even on the 
still steeper and higher slopes agriculture is often possible for a few 
years without terracing by growing, at least in north China, special 
crops such as maize or Indian corn and potatoes, both originally from 
America. Soon, however, the soil washes away and the fields must be 
abandoned. 

The second most important cause for the forest removal is the need 
for forest products, especially timber. With the gradual removal of 
the timber near centers of population the quality of the lumber de- 
creased and the price went up, so that the standard of living fell lower 
and lower. Much of the timber now seen rafted to market in China 
would not be transported in America even for fuel or pulpwood. 
When the huge wooden pillars of the Temple of Heaven in Peiping, 
originally brought down from Manchuria, were destroyed by fire, 
they could only be replaced from the fir forests of the northwestern 
United States. But the common man cannot rebuild with imported 
lumber; he must use sun-dried bricks or mud plastered over kaoliang 
stalks. Every stick of available wood must be used for the best pur- 
pose to which it can be put. The ever-increasing demand, as the 
population has grown, has led to more and more cutting of the forests, 
then to scratching the treeless hillsides for whatever would serve as 

3 Kaoliang is a variety of Sorghum nervosum resembling kafir corn which is sparingly 


grown in America. Kaoliang fields in Shantung remind one of the vast cornfields of 
Illinois and Iowa. 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 351 


fuel. It is little wonder, then, that the hills near the great cities are 
denuded. 

A factor favoring destruction in some areas has been the fear of 
wild animals, such as tigers, leopards, and wolves, and of wild men 
or bandits, who, indeed, may be the very people who in the first 
instance lost their land through erosion and then turned to banditry 
in order to maintain life. Thus forests have been cut down and the 
new growth kept under control by repeated burning, till grasses were 
thoroughly established which can now be replaced by forests only 
with the greatest of difficulty. It has been reported that hillsides 
have been burned over so that the ashes will wash down and fertilize 
the cultivated lowlands, 

It might be supposed that the obvious value of the forests to the 
country as a whole would have led to governmental control of cut- 
ting and to replanting on an extensive scale. Such has indeed oc- 
curred in certain ancient times and has been resumed in the modern 
period of China’s awakening, But governmental control in China has 
long been weak, and the intense preoccupation of the people with the 
struggle for existence has prevented any general demand for im- 
proved conditions. It has been observed that in the Ming and Ching 
Dynasties the officials were drawn largely from the “literati” or 
scholars of the country, who, though they appreciated the forests 
around the villages and temples, were little inclined to protect, main- 
tain, and develop forested areas. They left the problem to the lower 
classes, who had little or no vision beyond their narrow fields nor 
means to carry out what little they did have. Furthermore, the 
rulers, unlike many of the feudal governors of Europe, were not 
given to sports requiring hunting preserves. Hence, no wild areas 
were protected for their immediate owners and for posterity, as 
happened in Europe. An exception is found in certain imperial 
hunting preserves in north China, most of which, after the fall of 
the Empire in 1911, were sold by the abandoned and impoverished 
Manchus for commercial exploitation, so that they themselves might 
still subsist. This lack of: interest in forests on the part of the 
“literati” rulers has prevented the Government from protecting any 
private investment in maintained forests, so that the common people 
have been unimpeded in their seizing of whatever they could. Even 
safe titles to nonagricultural lands could not be had, so that there 
was little incentive to private initiative in forest development, and 
lumber companies could profit only by quick and complete exploita- 
tion of whatever concessions they could obtain. 

Even the little protection which the Government could give in 
peace times has been impossible in times of war. During these crises, 
especially following the revolution in 1911, forest destruction has gone 


352 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


on unhindered. Records of the Taiping Rebellion are full of ac- 
counts of destruction of trees and forests. In 1911 there were large 
forests on Loh Fau Shan about 50 miles east of Canton, but Prof. 
R. Mell reports that by 1921 only a sixth of them were left and by 
now they are probably all gone. Loh Fau Shan was, for at least 
10 years following 1922, a bandit land where no government official 
dared intrude. 

Along with the weakening and modernizing of the Government 
following the revolution has occurred the steady decline in the in- 
fluence of the Buddhist temples and monasteries, which have long 
protected their encircling forests and jungles as part of their reverence 
for wildlife. But as their official state support dwindled they, like 
the abandoned Manchu officials, sold their assets for commercial 
exploitation. 

The factors making for preservation of forests in China are far 
weaker than those making for destruction, but are, nevertheless, worthy 
of some consideration. Foremost among these is the difficulty of trans- 
porting the forest products in areas distant from rivers and streams. 
Where trees must be carried for long distances on the backs of coolies 
over simple mountain trails, forests can remain (pl. 9, fig. 1). Until 
the motor or railroad age reaches western China its vast forests are 
safe. Likewise the Buddhist philosophy of the preservation of all life 
and the demands of that religion for isolated seclusion have preserved 
throughout the ages many remnants of the primeval forest and even 
aided new forests to grow up. These preserved oases are of great 
scientific value in showing what the original native vegetation was and 
thus enabling modern reforestation to proceed on a sound biological 
foundation. 

The emphasis that western writers have put on the destruction of 
Chinese forests has often blinded people to the practice of forestry 
that has existed in the country even for many centuries. In places 
there are clan or community forest projects, a few of which have al- 
ready been referred to. W.C. Lowdermilk has mentioned seeing well- 
managed communal forests that exceed any similar enterprises, even 
those of Germany. Foresters who have visited some of the more in- 
accessible parts of Kwangtung and Kwangsi have been surprised to 
find thriving reforestation projects using the southern fir (Cunning- 
hamia lanceolata), grown when young under the shade of manihot or 
cassava bushes. They report that this is largely the result of a greater 
appreciation by the aboriginees of the value of trees and that the 
Chinese near them are favorably influenced to adopt their methods. 
These efforts at reforestation probably result largely from the need 
for forest products. Indeed throughout much of Kwangtung the 
growing of the red pine (Pinus massoniana) for fuel, including the 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 350 


branches for brick- and lime-kiln fuel, may be considered in this same 
light, though the scattered way the trees are grown hardly leads to 
real forests. 

Scientific reforestation has made a beginning in China. Its first 
attempts were in Hong Kong under British supervision and in Shan- 
tung when it was under German control. In the former colony there 
bas long been a forestry department, and much replanting of the hill- 
sides with native pine has occurred. In Tsingtao foreign trees, includ- 
ing American black locust, Scotch pine, and many others, have been 
successfully used. Nanking University and Lingnan University have 
contributed much to the program, and Sunyatsen University has had 
an active forestry department and careful studies have been made 
leading to a thorough program of reforestation. Experimental plots 
have been tried with various trees, some of which are encouraging, 
others not so promising. Cunninghamia is the most promising for 
the higher parts in northern Kwangtung, but it proves to be unsuited 
to the lower lands. Here must eventually be established evergreen 
tropical forests on the now grass-covered hillsides. This transforma- 
tion cannot be made in one step. Instead intermediate growth must 
be established using carefully tested trees, capable of growing well 
on these open hillsides, such as possibly Z'ucalyptus of selected species, 
Dalbergia sisoo, a leguminous tree from a similar formation and 
climate in Assam, the native Pinus massoniana, the chinaberry tree 
(Melia azedarach), wood oil (Aleurites spp.), Leuwcaena glauca, and 
others. An enlightened insight has come to the leading scientific men 
of China, but as yet it has not come to the masses. 


THE USES OF CHINESE PLANTS 


Almost all the Chinese prescientific interest in plants from the mythi- 
cal scholar Shen Nung of 2000 B. C. to the beginning of the scientific 
period in China in the present century related to their usefulness to 
man. The same was true in western countries, for the earliest Euro- 
pean botanical books, like those of the Chinese, were herbals or books 
on the medicinal and food-yielding properties of plants. Even today 
most people are economic-minded. Ask any person not trained in 
science about a plant and his reply will be either that it is a weed or a 
useless plant, or that it is “of some good”—that is, useful. So we find 
a vast storehouse of information on useful plants in Chinese literature, 
but little if anything concerning noneconomic plants. 

The first great use of plants to man is of course for food, and in 
this field the Chinese excel. Whether it be their greater control of 
prejudices against certain food plants as lowly, unpalatable, or harm- 
ful, or whether the constant recurrence of disasters which have taken 
away their normal foods and thrust them back against the evil choice of 


304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


starving or of eating whatever can be consumed regardless of prej- 
udice, it is hard to say. But the fact is that in China more kinds 
of plants are eaten than in the west. Famines have occurred in 
the west, but never was there written outside of China a book telling 
what to eat in times of famine, or a “famine herbal,” such as that 
written by Chu Hsiao in the fifteenth century under the title “Chiu 
huang pén ts’ao.” This book has been issued in many editions, sev- 
eral in Japan, and large parts have been translated into western 
languages. 

Intensive agriculture is probably more highly developed in China 
than in any other part of the world. Throughout its thousands of 
years of growth methods have been found that derive from the soil 
almost the last possible ounce of food, but at the same time leave 
the land capable of growing more crops indefinitely. Of course 
modern scientific agricultural methods can make and are making 
valuable contributions to Chinese farming and furnish explanation 
for many of the empirical methods used in China, but at the same 
time the west is learning much from the east. Certain food plants 
have long been grown in China which the west is only beginning 
to appreciate (pl. 9, fig. 2), and we are discovering there methods of 
storing and marketing which we can well consider. For example, 
in 1924 P. H. Dorsett, agricultural explorer for the United States 
Department of Agriculture, studied for the first time the methods 
used near Peiping in handling the large persimmon crop. The fruits 
mature throughout the fall. When fresh, these large tomato-sized 
orchard fruits are too full of tannin to be eaten. Hence, the first 
of the crop is carefully treated in a hot-water bath for about 12 hours, 
which process removes the tannin and renders the fruits readily 
marketable. The bulk of the crop, however, matures late in the fall. 
Most of us in the southern and south-central United States have 
learned that persimmons picked before the frosts of early winter will 
pucker one’s mouth, but that those gathered later are good. This 
fact has never been used for commercial exploitation of the American 
persimmon, but the Chinese have applied the principle on a large 
scale and millions of persimmons are stored in special outdoor beds 
where they quickly freeze (pl. 10, fig. 1). Not only are they thus 
rendered delicious by the removal of the tannin, but they are also 
preserved, so that they can be marketed throughout the long winter, 
being thawed out only as needed. Frozen or frosted foods in the 
west are of very recent development and require complicated arti- 
ficial refrigeration. The Chinese industry resulted from the careful 
development of the right varieties or forms of persimmons, grafted 
on the proper stock, and grown in a country where natural freezing 
is possible. Also the size of the crop must not be so great as to 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 355 


flood the facilities for early treatment by hot water, or to flood the 
early market, nor too great to be consumed before the heat of spring 
and summer finds unsold stocks in the storage beds. 

So it is with many other food plants and methods. We in the 
west, handicapped by our prejudices of taste, have only probed the 
surface of Chinese agriculture for new food plants, or new forms of 
old ones, or methods of handling them. Of course the major diffi- 
culty lies in the fact that labor is cheap in China and agricultural 
methods give scant consideration to the human efforts expended, 
whereas in western agriculture labor must be saved at every turn. 

Next to their use as foods, plants are sought by man the world 
over for their medicinal virtues. In China food and medicine are 
closely linked, and a skillful housewife of the wealthier classes keeps 
her family in health by the right selection of foods from the great 
range available, rather than by the administration of drugs. A 
Chinese pharmacopoeia is full of food plants. It contains likewise 
a far larger number of drug plants than do our western medicinal 
handbooks, which, indeed, with each new issue list fewer and fewer 
plants as sources of useful drugs. Many of these Chinese drugs 
and their plant origins have been examined by modern scientific 
methods and some have proved of real value, as the ma-huang, the 
desert plant Ephedra sinica, which has long been used in China as a 
haemostatic and for the treatment of asthma, and only relatively 
recently adopted into western medicine. Other Chinese drugs have 
proved of little or no value, such as ginseng, long valued highly 
in China as a giver of fertility. As far as western science ean de- 
termine, its virtues are purely psychological, and the plant is not 
included in our pharmacopoeias. However, only the surface of Chi- 
nese medicine has as yet been scratched by modern science. 

Plants as givers of building material probably rank in importance 
ahead of their use for medicine. The supply of wood exerts a pro- 
found influence on Chinese life, for in western China, where the 
population is thinner and wood more abundant, we find it much used 
in house construction, but in most parts of China, mud or bricks, 
either kiln-burned or sun-dried, are used, the mud plastered over 
kaoliang stalks in the north or over bamboo or other materials in 
the south. In the latter region bamboo frames covered with palm- 
leaf thatch are often erected for temporary buildings. Few who 
have seen the construction work in any of the large cities, especially 
in the central and southern parts, have failed to marvel at the 
strength, magnitude, and skillful fabrication of the scaffolding erected 
by lashing together bamboo or pine or fir poles with seemingly frail 
strips of bamboo and with no use of nails. The lack of wood for ties 
or sleepers is a great handicap in the building of railroads in China. 


356 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Although coal, oil, and natural gas are used in China as sources of 
heat, their limited distribution and the high cost of transportation of 
such bulky materials prevent their general use throughout the country. 
Instead wood and charcoal are burned, except where their lack forces 
people to comb the countryside for whatever will give off heat. Quan- 
tities of rice straw and kaoliang stalks are likewise used for fuel, and the 
leaves, grass, pine needles, and weeds garnered from the hillsides find 
their way into the stoves in quantities just sufficient to maintain the 
minimum of warmth. This combing of the hillsides removes the po- 
tential humus and protection needed for seedling trees and shrubs 
and prevents the restoration of the woody cover (pl. 4, fig. 1). The 
ashes go to the fields for fertilizer. Charcoal is a favorite fuel because 
its light weight enables a coolie to carry on his shoulders more po- 
tential heat than if he were carrying wood. Nothing is wasted in 
China. Of course much of the heat problem is solved by the wearing 
of more clothes, which in turn is related to another plant, cotton. 

Besides food, medicine, building material, and fuel, plants also 
furnish fiber for clothing and other textiles. Cotton is by far the most 
important, as it is the most economical. Wool is less economical be- 
cause land is required to feed the sheep or goats, but cotton grows 
directly, thus producing more “warmth” per acre in spite of its lesser 
insulating properties. Silk is a luxury, yet probably a greater re- 
turn per acre of land can be obtained from silk than would be possible 
from wool, because of its greater value and the export demand. A\I- 
though the silk comes from an insect, the industry is essentially based 
on the culture of the mulberry, which grows well in all the warmer parts 
of China, but especially in the delta of the West River in Kwangtung. 
Here the long growing season permits the development of sufficient 
leaves to feed three and sometimes four or five generations of silkworms 
per year. In some places in north-central China, where the mulberry 
will not grow, silkworms are fed on certain oak leaves. Many other 
fibers are grown in China. An important crop in parts of Chihli 
Province is the ching ma or American jute (Abutilon theophrasti), a 
member of the mallow family (Malvaceae). This is grown as a sub- 
stitute crop when others have failed for a season. From it is produced 
a fiber, which, when mixed with other fibers, is used in the manufac- 
ture of brocades and silk substitutes. 

Many kinds of plants find uses in the manufacture of the numerous 
articles used in China. Much thought has been given throughout the 
ages to their cultivation, selection, and adaptation to special uses. Al- 
though many plant sources have been scientifically determined, many 
others remain as yet unknown. It has often been difficult to determine 
what plants furnish the materials from which even well-known manu- 
factured articles are made, and even today many may not be rightly 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 357 


named. Indeed, some of the plants may not yet be known to science, 
for only about 3 years ago it was found that the lo han kwoh, a long- 
known Chinese fruit of the melon family (Cucurbitaceae), repre- 
sented a new species, and the same may well be true of some industrial 
plants. Often a manufactured product or food comes from a special 
variety or form of a well-known plant, which has been developed in 
a limited isolated region never visited by anyone with an inquiring 
scientific mind. Likewise many processes of manufacture have not 
been adequately described, for few observers give attention to the 
many minute and apparently trivial details of the intricate processes 
of turning raw materials into manufactured products or of preparing 
plants for food. 

It is impossible within the scope of a paper dealing in a broad way 
with the botany of China to do more than suggest the existence of the 
fascinating field of economic botany. To discuss the plants from which 
are manufactured paper and textiles other than those already men- 
tioned, or from which oils, resins, gums, varnishes, dyes, drugs, and a 
host of other products are extracted, would require far too much space. 
The subject of the uses of the many kinds of bamboo alone is itself one 
for a separate book. One of the great fascinations of China is the 
finding of the different ways in which things are done. A factor 
which makes for the ready observation of such things is the home-and- 
shop method of manufacture of numerous articles, in contrast with the 
closed-factory method used in this country. Generally, too, the people 
are responsive to an interest in their occupations and the methods 
used. 


THE EXCHANGE OF USEFUL PLANTS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES 


Most of the important crops of Europe and North America 
originated in Asia. Likewise the most important crops of China are 
introductions, wheat being a native of southwestern Asia, kaoliang * 
probably of India, and rice of southern or southeastern Asia, as far 
as known. Many plants were exchanged between Europe and China 
in early days along the caravan routes across central Asia and Persia, 
as has been told by B. Laufer, of the Feld Museum in Chicago, in his 
scholarly study under the title “Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions 
to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran, with Special Reference 
to the History of Cultivated Plants and Products.” The taking of 
useful Chinese plants to Europe has already been mentioned as the 
major objective of most western botanists in China. In recent years 
the methods of search have been much perfected, and the results at- 
tained have considerably affected our economic life. 


4 See footnote 3, p. 350. 
566766—44—_24 


358 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Of all the parts of the world from which plants may be introduced 
into Europe and America, China is the most promising because of the 
great number and diversity of the plants occurring there and because 
most of them are Temperate Zone plants, hence suitable for cultivation 
in other temperate regions. Another factor is that during the long 
development of Chinese agriculture many new varieties and forms have 
been selected and developed which are also suitable for our use. 

Many kinds of introductions have been made from China. Some are 
ornamentals for adorning our gardens, others are new food plants or 
new varieties or forms of old ones, or disease-resistant forms, and still 
others are plants needed in industry, such as wood or tung oil. 
Furthermore, some plants have been introduced for special protective 
plantings, such as the Chinese elm (Ulmus pumila) from dry north 
China, much used in our well-known Prairie States shelter-belt project. 

The methods used by plant explorers vary according to their ob- 
jectives, their own individual peculiarities and abilities, and the 
regions in which they work. Most of them have been sent by some 
scientific society or government to collect living plants, seeds, or cut- 
tings. Others have been foreign residents in China, teachers, mission- 
aries, or consular officers, who have obtained material in their spare 
time, or as part-time collaborators with their home governments. 
Some explorers have traveled far and fast with little baggage, picking 
up the most promising plants from here and there for mailing home. 
Still others have traveled in large parties with full equipment and 
many helpers (pl. 6), usually with official military escorts. Some- 
times they have gone unobtrusively about their work, speaking the 
language and mingling with the people as one of them, or perhaps 
working with or through a trained native assistant. Some of our ex- 
plorers have established themselves with full equipment in some large 
city near the region to be explored, from which they have sallied forth 
on frequent journeys into the country. This enables them to return as 
often as necessary to the same place to see the different stages of de- 
velopment of plants they were gathering, or the local process of 
harvesting and preserving them. Frequently in working in this man- 
ner they first visit the markets to discover what fruits and vegetables 
are being offered for sale (pl. 12, figs. 1 and2). Then they find whence 
they came and finally visit the farmers who raised them. One of the 
plant explorer’s greatest problems is packing and shipping the seeds, 
cuttings, and full plants to their new homes, so that they will arrive 
safely and in viable condition. They must also be disease-free, so 
that they may pass the rigid quarantine established to keep foreign 
diseases from reaching plants in this country not immune to their 
ravages. Often these collectors have endured great hardships, and 
a number have died in the field as a result of privations. Many, too, 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 359 


have lived to see fruitful fields in their homeland bearing valuable 
crops as a result of their hard labors in distant China. 

The plant-disease aspects of plant introduction are very important 
and interesting. In 1913 after the chestnut-bark disease, then of 
unknown origin, had begun its devastating attack on this highly 
important forest tree in America, Frank N. Meyer, well-known United 
States Department of Agriculture explorer (pl. 11, fig. 1), discovered 
the same disease in China. He also found that the Chinese chestnut 
trees were able to survive the attacks of this disease, suffering only 
wounds from which they could recover (pl. 10, fig. 2). The evidence 
is strong that by some unknown means this disease of the inner bark, 
caused by a fungus called E'ndothia parasitica, found its way into 
this country where our trees were not immune. To replace our 
doomed chestnuts the United States Department of Agriculture has 
cbtained large quantities of seed from selected Chinese trees which 
have survived the disease and are therefore known to be immune. 
Hence, in the course of time, we will have new chestnut trees for shade 
and chestnut bark for tannin. 

Another aspect of the plant-disease problem is the introduction 
from China of insecticide plants. A few years ago the casual dis- 
covery of an article published in Chinese in a current entomological 
periodical from Chekiang Province revealed the use there of an in- 
secticide powder prepared from the roots of Tripterygium wilfordiz, 
a shrub of the staff-tree family (Celastraceae). This organic poison, 
long known in China, is far superior to mineral poisons, such as those 
prepared with arsenic, because it disintegrates and becomes harmless 
by the time vegetables and fruits sprayed with it are ready to be 
eaten. Plants of this species were obtained by the United States 
Department of Agriculture through consular officers and Chinese 
plantsmen for experimental cultivation and investigation in this 
country. Great benefits are likely to result from this introduction 
when the details of its growth and preparation have been perfected. 

Many other examples might be given of various benefits to this 
country resulting from plant introduction. In like manner China is 
destined to benefit from importations from the United States and 
other temperate regions. As yet little attention has been given in 
China to this method of helping to solve her food problems, but be- 
ginnings have been made in extending the work on a scientific basis. 
In certain parts of China, as for example the higher parts of Kansu 
Province, it would be possible to grow more nutritive plants than are 
now commonly cultivated, if the right varieties adapted to their par- 
ticular climates and soils could be found. Reference has previously 
been made to the introduction of foreign trees for planting in inter- 


360 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


mediate stages in the reforestation of denuded mountains. A number 
of foreign trees have already been planted for this and for various 
other purposes in China, especially black locust from America, which 
is being grown to furnish much-needed railroad ties. The possibili- 
ties for more profitable introductions are almost endless, and with the 
cessation of the present war, rapid progress will undoubtedly be 
made in introducing plants, as well as in using more effectively and 
scientifically the rich Chinese flora for the benefit of mankind in 
China and elsewhere. 


SELECTED BIBLOGRAPHY OF GENERAL WORKS ON CHINESE PLANTS 


The following list contains the major general works on Chinese plants, espe- 
cially those which might be useful in identifying plants. Some other references 
are given concerning the vegetation or phytogeography of the country and the 
history of botany in China, and a few works are listed by which Chinese names 
of plants may be identified with their Latin or English equivalents. For other 
notes on the literature of Chinese botany see pp. 333-334. 


BRETSCHNEDDER, HE. V. 
1898. History of European botanical discoveries in China. 2 vols. London. 
A facsimile reproduction was issued in Leipzig in 1935. 
Ca#’EN, YUNG. 
1937. Chung hua shu fen lei hsueh. 1,544 pp., illustr. Nanking. 
An illustrated manual of Chinese trees and shrubs. In Chinese with Latin 
names. 
CHow, HANG-FAN. 
1934. The familiar trees of Hopei. English ed., 370 pp., illustr.; Chinese 
ed., 269 pp., illustr. 
CHUN, WOON-YOUNG. 
1922. Chinese economic trees. 3809 pp., illustr. Shanghai. 
CuHunG, H. H. 
1924. A catalogue of the trees and shrubs of China. Mem. Sci. Soc 
China, vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-271. 
This is a check list of Latin names only. 
Diets, Lupwic. 
1900-1901. Die Flora von Central China. Bot. Jahrb., vol. 29, Hefte 2-5, 
pp. 169-659. Leipzig. 
A systematic treatment in German without keys or descriptions, except of 
new species. 
DunN, STEPHEN T., and TuTcHER, WILLIAM J. 
1912. Flora of Kwangtung and Hongkong. Kew Bull. Misc. Inf., Add. 
Ser., No. 10, 370 pp. 
A systematie work with keys but without descriptions. 
Forbes, FRANCIS BLACKWELL, and HEMSLEY, W. Botrina. 
1886-1905. An enumeration of all the plants known from China proper, 
Formosa, Hainan, Corea, the Luchu Archipelago, and the Island 
of Hongkong ... Journ. Linnean Soc. London, Botany, vols. 23, 
26, and 36. 
The most complete enumeration ever published. See p. 330 for further data. 


PLANTS OF CHINA—WALKER 361 


HANDEL-MAzZZETTI, HEINRICH. 
1931. Die pflanzengeographische Gliederung und Stellung Chinas. Bot. 
Jahrb., vol. 64, Heft 4, pp. 309-323. Leipzig. 
Abstracted in English in Abstracts of Communications, Fifth International 
Botanical Congress, Cambridge (England), pp. 315-319, 1930. 
Hu, HSIEN-HSU. 
1936. The characteristics and affinities of Chinese flora. Bull. Chinese 
Bot. Soce., vol. 2, pp. 67-84. Peiping. 
KunG, CHING-LAI, et al. 
1918. Chih wu hsueh ta t’zu tien, or Botanical nomenclature. 1,726 pp., 
illustr. Shanghai. 

This illustrated botanical dictionary containing Latin, Chinese, Japanese, 
German, and English names is largely translated from Japanese. Probably 
it is mostly correct. 

LEE, SHUN-CH’ING. 
1935. Forest botany of China. 991 pp., illustr. 

A systematic treatment with descriptions of all species, but often botanically 
inaccurate. 

Liv, JU-CH’IANG. 
1931. Systematic botany of the flowering families in North China. 212 
pp., illustr. Peiping. 2d ed., 1934. 
This is not a general manual. 
MATSUMUBA, JINZO. 
1915. Shokubutsu mei-i. (Revised and enlarged.) Pt. 1, Chinese names 
of plants. 405 pp. 

By means of this work the Latin equivalents of Chinese names of plants may 

be found, especially those mentioned in the Chinese classics. 
MERRILL, ELMER D., and WALKER, EcBerT H. 
1938. <A bibliography of eastern Asiatic botany. 719 pp., 2 maps. Arnold 
Arboretum, Jamica Plain, Mass. 
A source for finding much literature on numerous subjects. 
SHaw, NorMAN. 
1914. Chinese forest trees and timber supply. 351 pp., illustr. London. 
A description of forests and trees from the commercial foresters’ point of view. 
WILSON, Esnest H. 
1914. A naturalist in western China. 2 vols. New York. 

A very readable account of the author’s explorations. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Walker PLATE 1 


1. BARREN, ERODING, PARTIALLY TERRACED MOUNTAINS IN NORTH CHINA. 


Orchards grow on the terraces, but only Viter incisa shrubs, small wild jujube trees, and grasses clothe the 
mountain slopes. Note the stone walls supporting the terraces. (Photograph by P. H. Dorsett, courtesy 
U.S. Department of Agriculture.) 


2. A TYPICAL FARM SCENE IN MIDDLE CHINA. 


The trees mark the farm houses or temples, all the remaining land being used for growing rice. (Photo- 
graph by P. H. Dorsett, courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture.) 


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1. HIGH ALPINE PLANTS IN THE LIKIANG SNOW RANGE, WESTERN SZECHWAN. 


These medusa-headed composites (Saussurea lewcoma) were found at 16,500 feet altitude, about the upper 
limit of plant growth. Such alpine treasures are among the goals of plant explorers. (Photograph by 
J. F. Rock, © National Geographic Society.) 


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2. A BANYAN TREE (FICUS LACOR) IN SZECHWAN PROVINCE. 


These venerable trees spread wide their huge branches from short, gnarled trunks. Among the twisted 
roots one may find a simple shrine with glowing incense sticks. (Photograph by E. H.Wilson, courtesy 
Arnold Arboretum.) 


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1. ANCIENT MUD WATCHTOWERS IN THE ARID MEKONG VALLEY IN YUNNAN. 


Corn has been harvested in the foreground and compost piled for the next crop. Scattered trees, probably 
pines, cover the distant heights. (Photograph by J. F. Rock, © National Geographic Society.) 


2. GRASSLANDS OF NORTHEASTERN TIBET. 


An explorer’s party resting for lunch. Note the almost complete lack of woody plants. When the spring 
frosts disappear the alpine flowers clothe the hills in a riot of color. (Photograph by F. R. Wulsin, © 
National Geographic Society.) 


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1. HAND-HEWN HEMLOCK TIMBERS EN ROUTE TO MARKET. 


These measure 7 by 9 inches and are 18! feet Jong and weigh nearly 400 pounds. When such means of 
transport are replaced by trucks and trains, the remaining forests may be doomed. (Photograph by 
E. H. Wilson, courtesy Arnold Arboretum.) 


2. AN OLD ORCHARD OF JUJUBES OR CHINESE DATES NEAR PEIPING. 


Winter wheat is planted in rows in this crchard. It makes a good growth before the leaves of the trees in 
spring cast too much shade. Jujube orchards are now established in California. (Photograph by P. H. 
Dorsett, courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Walker PLATE 10 


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1. MILLIONS OF PERSIMMONS FROZEN SOLID IN NATURAL COLD-STORAGE 
BEDS NEAR PEIPING. 


Note the bundles of kaoliang stalks placed across mounds of earth, thus enabling the cold air to penetrate 
under the fruit. Thin mats are spread over the top. (Photograph by P. H. Dorsett, courtesy U. S. 
Department of Agriculture.) 


2. BLIGHT-RESISTANT CHINESE CHESTNUT TREES (CASTANEA 
MOLLISSIMA) IN A CHIHLI PROVINCE ORCHARD. 


Note the healing scars of branches killed by the blight and the crop planted beneath the trees. American 
chestnut trees would have died. (Photograph by F. N. Meyer, courtesy U. 8S. Department of Agri- 
culture.) ; ; 


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NATURAL RUBBER! 


By O. F. Coox 


[With 20 plates} 
CONTENTS 

Page 

Why the two principal rubber trees are confused. __-_-..--__.----_--_- 365 
GamingretaGhe mb ben ares ter ies ioe oie Ries elude ale Lk AR eis 367 
Anew realmrot human attainment. 2422 oe ee 368 
Service of rubber-tovsciences=22 sia 2 Ese A ea 369 
dubber discoveries accidentals). .tee a eee ee 370 
ine wrst.:uropean to appreciate rubber... #2242. 2k leeks ees | 371 
ia Condaniine in! Brazil\and Giuliana Joe. ooo ae ATE ek 372 

A basic discovery in extracting Para rubber latex._____-___--__-------- 373 
Seopevol Ridley si@iscovery aao20 i422 oS nl ee a 374 
Pxplaming the wound responses’ ac {oe ee el ye El 375 
Commeneial gunveys) of wild, rubber) ae js 2 re 2 es ON lla reat 375 
Genera related cO) WAstIa eyo sR a Bn ete ees Pe 377 
Genera ‘related to’ Para rubber: sh.) ois sie!) a es eon 377 
Evaltiation of rubber treesisi2 eps Gi ety Bere ele ete teh ia ie 377 
Reasons) for preferring treecropso2e. 2-2 bok Sei da ee el 378 
Rubberiasia garden crop sve ein! seek a Nie a 379 
Proplemsiof. rubber latex. £287) eet CC ee come 22 A) oka NR 380 
Kuper py rule, Of Uinainbyc ee a lens peas ae OY Re eos eae as, weve - 3880 
Rubberand near-rubberse Pie oe Us oe Se RE ede 382 
Rubbermrithoutiater! ey Atos oe erecta ee rei ree ee (ya 382 
Rubber-forming cells in ‘Castilla latexgicse Sees Se 384 
Castilla, handicapped by anvenzyme gy. 2 i ei ek CR ai lel AL 384 
TSRTOX SPTATALO ALON GSE IO Li ik UN Re oa pe es ese a 386 
Specialized branches and leaves in Castilla..._.__.___-_---__------------ 387 
Two forms of branches'in' Castillats 3102S. ols Le oe 388 
Specialized leaves of dimorphic branches__._-__.---__---_-------- 389 
awoupreliminary, leat forme iny Castilla... 82500 00.22 ce wee Ue 390 
Propagation of Castilla from permanent branches___._______------- 391 
Forest adaptations of the Para rubber tree. 222. -25--22522-.2e00 528 391 
Branching habits or eararupbver tree... 2S lo eee aes 393 
Inermittent, growthvobitimonks Joe Led eh ee ee Pe ee 393 
eaves! arranged itl rosettes eh op iit bee sey hss Eg eh ae 394 
Many, leafless ;metamenrsit sara tse i) oy in Nui 52). hare te copier bua dea agi iain 394 
SPONY, PETishapleseeae <12e" we kid ye ey Beas el a 395 
edves Of SCCdlhNngRSGeNeCatO ssc act tae fee Oe ee las oe ee he 395 


1 Much of this material is recast from previous papers and reports by the same writer in publications 
of the U. 8. Department of Agriculture. A bibliography is appended. Titles of some of the papers are 
mentioned in the text, with other references by date only. 


363 


364 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Page 

A growth disorder in seedlings of Para rubber__.__..._..._...---.----_ 396 
Diversity in ‘abnormal plants. 10228 eh a Ste ee yey ee eg 397 
Recovery of normal leaf forms: oi wee eles 8 eet Ate cree i ee 397 
A-anature tree with narrow leavesses ecu ky od se ep avenines oe AO 398 

The Para rubber tree as-a-bypricetoek-- 45 a2. oe 398 
Rubper in a Gesert sorub serie ne eee ee eh ete Ree Le a 398 
Developing a’ guayule Industryea ae a eke 400 
Effect of Ridley’s discovery on guayule and Castilla__._.__.__.__---- 400 
Possibility of applying guayule extraction methods to Castilla__.____ 401 
Rubber in desert milkweeds ve! 2 severe ere) 2 eee Pe 402 
Cra ptestegen as): A SOL COVER. er eee hee eerie 2 URINE A al I ee oe 403 
The African tubber tree in shelter beltse-.0 2 Ce eo eee ee 404 
Ahardy. Guitta-perehaneree 0k 8 8 OU aig ale ies AI aa AN 404 
Eucommia, a tree that never blossoms. 2..242):-2505._-42.5..-2-2502 405 
Eucommia suppresses all terminal buds_______._.--..--._---_------ 406 
nie ‘Deilsitey Gro eee oe ee ite eels er ee ahaa Pe ae Ne ad ands ER 407 
(Phe sapodilla, orehewine-pumiptrees |] oes ete ee Be ae 408 
Ourihousehold/ “rubber plan 72 2 ul OU aria Ce ek ged a 8 a a 409 
MWOlTubbers ia tONG:bReG ss.) 2 oi 2 ee 2 Ei pia ee oh ee os ee 409 


Taking account of natural sources of rubber is a scientific task of 
enormous proportions, which as yet has received only casual and inter- 
mittent attention. Only a few species have been studied and evaluated, 
while thousands are known to contain rubber, and other thousands 
doubtless remain to be discovered. Rubber and rubberlike substances 
are not restricted to plants that have latex, the milky juice that is car- 
ried in minute tubes apart from the other tissues. Latex may have 
functions in the plant economy other than the storage or transfer 
of the rubber-forming material, but nothing has been found to indi- 
cate that the rubber material itself is more than a waste product, like 
the resins, tannins, or lignins that are formed in the various groups of 
higher plants. Thus no biological limit can be set to the need of a 
general survey of the plant kingdom. 

A beginning of the search for rubber resources may be reckoned 
from a century ago, when the Para rubber tree in the forest of the 
Amazon valley began to be exploited on a large scale, after the Castilla 
or Central American rubber tree, the original source of commercial 
rubber, was largely exhausted. To the middle of the last century most 
of the rubber had been obtained from the Castilla tree, and Brazil has 
continued to furnish Castilla rubber from the more remote or less 
accessible districts. The Castilla rubber is handled in Brazil under the 
name caucho, while the Para rubber is known as borracha. The com- 
mercial preponderance of the Para rubber in recent decades has left 
the Castilla rubber in such obscurity—or even oblivion—that popular 
writers were led to suppose that the history of rubber began in the 
Amazon valley. In reality the Castilla rubber had been known in 
Mexico and elsewhere in tropical America for more than three cen- 
turies before the Para rubber became prominent. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 365 


The Para rubber tree was not widely utilized in the early days be- 
cause much more labor was required to get the rubber from it than to 
gather the rubber of Castilla. A Castilla tree was exploited in Brazil 
in a single complete operation—felling the tree and ringing the trunk 
in many places, thus obtaining several pounds of rubber, often 10 to 
20 pounds—while a Para rubber tree had to be punctured repeatedly 
through weeks and months, and the latex collected in daily driblets. 
But with the greater demand for rubber and the rapid advance in 
prices after the middle of the last century, following Goodyear’s im- 
provements of manufacturing processes, the gathering of Para rub- 
ber was greatly stimulated. The discovery of vulcanization is dated 
from 1839, and Goodyear obtained his patent in 1844. 

When Richard Spruce, a first-rank botanical explorer, landed at 
Para in 1849, he found that the tapping of the Para rubber tree was 
“limited to the immediate environs” of the city, but in a few years of 
rising prices thousands of people turned to gathering the Para rubber. 

The extraordinary price reached by rubber in Par& in 1853 at length woke 
up the people from their lethargy, and when once set in motion, so wide was the 
impulse extended that throughout the Amazon and its principal tributaries the 
mass of the population put itself in motion to search out and fabricate rubber. 
In the small province of Paré alone (which includes a very small portion of the 
Amazon) it was computed that 25,000 persons were employed in that branch 
of industry. Mechanics threw aside their tools, sugar-makers deserted their 
mills, and Indians their rogas, so that sugar, rum, and even farinha were not 
produced in sufficient quantity for the consumption of the province. 

Spruce was told of an earlier period when the rubber trees had been 
felled for tapping, and he inferred from this that the method of har- 
vesting had been changed in the interest of obtaining more rubber “by 
successive tappings of the same tree.” Since felling and ringing the 
trees was the usual procedure with Castilla in South America, a tran- 
sition from Castilla to Para rubber is indicated. Some of the up-river 
tribes that Spruce visited did not know that rubber was being gathered 
from the Para rubber tree. 


WHY THE TWO PRINCIPAL RUBBER TREES ARE CONFUSED 


The generic name Siphonia, dating from 1791, was used by Spruce 
for the Para rubber tree, and for several related species that he dis- 
covered in Brazil, such as Siphonia lutea, S. pauciflora, and S. dis- 
color. The use of Hevea instead of Siphonia by Mueller von Aargau 
in 1865 was a mistake, and has led to much confusion in the histories, 
habits, and uses of the two principal rubber trees. The native name, 
heve, the original of Hevea, did not belong to the Para rubber tree or 
even to the Amazon valley, but to the Castilla tree and to the district 
of Esmeraldas on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, visited by La Conda- 
mine in 1736. The Para rubber tree and the related species of Sipho- 


366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


nia do not extend beyond the Andes, but only to the eastern foothills 
of the mountain barrier. The natural distribution of Castilla in- 
cludes most of tropical America from Brazil and Peru to Mexico, 
but not the West Indies. 

Writers who traced the origin of the name Hevea to the district of 
Esmeraldas naturally inferred that the Para rubber tree was first 
discovered on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, though some have assumed 
that Esmeraldas was a locality in Brazil. As late as 1876 James 
Collins, the most competent author on rubber of that period, contrib- 
uting to a book on “British Manufacturing Industries,” represents 
La Condamine as finding Para rubber trees, “siphonias or seringas in 
great abundance,” along the Pacific coast, “adjacent to the sea.” 

The usual supposition that rubber history began in Brazil arises 
largely from the fact that rubber was coming from Brazil in the days 
of Goodyear, but the preceding centuries of rubber history should not 
be disregarded—three centuries in Mexico and at least one century in 
Brazil. The first rubber industry in Brazil was the gathering of 
Castilla rubber on the eastern slopes of the Andes, as witnessed by 
La Condamine when he descended the Amazon in 1748. This indus- 
try entered Brazil from the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast, 
and spread eastward through the Amazon valley, until it was replaced 
or at least overshadowed at the middle of the next century by the ex- 
ploitation of the Para rubber tree, beginning around Para and spread- 
ing westward, as witnessed by Spruce. The word caucho came from 
the west with the Castilla industry, the word borracha from the east, 
with the Para rubber. 

The primary error was made by Aublet in 1775 in associating the 
vernacular name heve from Esmeraldas with a native rubber tree of 
French Guiana. But Aublet’s Hevea had been discarded as a hom- 
onym in Lamarck’s encylopedia, and replaced by Siphonia. To 
overlook this fact was a technical error, violating one of the basic 
rules of nomenclature, that names abandoned as homonyms are not to 
be resumed. The name Hevea doubtless will continue in popular use 
for many years and will only gradually be replaced by Siphonia. An 
alternative is to treat Hevea as a popular name, like petunia, aster, or 
chrysanthemum. The name Para rubber tree is familiar and not 
equivocal. 

It seems remarkable that Spruce should have botanized in so many 
places along the Amazon without encountering a single Castilla tree, 
from which it may be inferred that a nearly complete extermination 
had taken place. Many other botanists, before and after Spruce, ob- 
tained no specimens. The Castilla of the lower Amazon had no botani- 
cal status until it was described by Warburg in 1905 as a new species, 
Castilla ulei, named for Ule, the collector. This tree may be less strik- 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 367 


ing than the other species of Castilla in Mexico and Central America, 
since the leaves are smaller, but the trees grow large and yields of 
30 to 50 pounds of rubber are reported. 

The confusion of the names might be supposed to have little rela- 
tion to the study of practical problems, since the two types of trees 
are entirely unlike in appearance, habits, and cultural requirements. 
Castilla is a striking, large-leaved tree like a magnolia, while the Para 
rubber has the appearance of an ordinary tree—an ash or a boxelder. 
Although nobody who knows the two trees would be expected to con- 
fuse them, yet much confusion regarding their characters and behavior 
has existed and still continues, even among those concerned with rub- 
ber experiments and projects. The commercial, industrial, mechan- 
ical, and chemical aspects of the rubber problems have been intensively 
elaborated, but not the plant-life aspects. Not many tree crops have 
been domesticated, and people rarely have experience of a kind to 
make them familiar with such differences as those of the rubber trees. 

Outside of the Amazon valley, popular knowledge of rubber trees 
in tropical America has related almost entirely to Castilla, with the 
Para rubber tree coming forward only in recent years. ‘The uncon- 
scious carry-over of ideas from the Castilla to the Para rubber has 
occasioned many destructive errors and interferences, even to the ex- 
tent of Para rubber trees being cut down as complete failures because 
they did not yield latex freely like Castilla. This reason was given 
for cutting down several Para rubber trees in an experimental plant- 
ing in Haiti. One of the stumps survived for many years, as shown 
in plate 11. 

On account of confusion of the trees, a certain indifference appears 
when the planting of Para rubber is advocated by speakers or writers 
not familiar with the Castilla tree. Separate recognition of the two 
trees in the minds of interested people is the first step toward effective 
understanding and utilization of either of the trees in tropical Amer- 
ica, or of both together. Castilla may serve under some conditions 
as a nurse crop for the Para rubber, but the extraction of the latex 
will need to be done in a different way. 


COMING OF THE RUBBER AGE 


Enormous resources of Para rubber were discovered in the forests 
covering the valleys of the Amazon and its principal tributaries, and 
yet in a few years all the accessible areas were being exploited, more 
wild rubber was being sought in other continents, and the question of 
planting rubber trees was being raised. In 1876 Wickham made his 
famous shipment of Para rubber seeds to the Kew Gardens near 
London, for planting in India, and 20 years later the first commercial 
planting of Para rubber was made in Malaya. The search for other 


368 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


sources lapsed when the planting project came through at the begin- 
ning of this century, and now is largely forgotten. From Goodyear 
to plantation rubber was only 50 years, and 50 more to the present 
time. 

The rapid advance of industrial civilization in the United States 
during this short period is viewed with complacency as the “Rubber 
Age,” usually without reflecting that in most of the other countries the 
utilization of rubber is only at the stage of beginning. The eventual 
need of rubber must be, in many parts of the world, hundreds or 
thousands of times the merely “token” requirements as yet recognized. 
Not only the populous countries need rubber, but the waste places have 
even greater needs, the vast areas of denuded lands, scarcely populated 
now, but to be made accessible and habitable by means of rubber. 
Every nation will need rubber. Developing adequate supplies of 
rubber is a basic provision for the general advance in human welfare 
that now is contemplated. 

Rubber has come to be a normal need of civilized people, hardly less 
than food, clothing, and shelter. The power of motion is an enlarge- 
ment of our lives that we purchase at any price. The wider attain- 
ments and satisfactions of this rubber-brought freedom still are beyond 
the range of constructive imagination, but there is no thought of turn- 
ing back to our previous immobile state. We have tried our new legs 
and wings, but have scarcely learned to use them. Even with us the 
Rubber Age lies mostly in the future. The futility of all the world 
depending on the production of a single rubber tree in a single region 
is amply demonstrated in the present emergency. ‘The production of 
Para rubber is being decentralized as rapidly as possible, and many 
other trees, shrubs, and herbaceous rubber-bearing plants are being 
studied, with special attention to those that can live outside the 
Tropics. The hardy Zucommia tree from China, if it produced rubber 
instead of gutta-percha, undoubtedly would be hailed as one of the 
most valuable introductions. The rubber crops of different countries 
eventually may be as diversified as the sugar crops or the starch crops, 
after the cultural qualifications of the various rubber bearers have been 
determined. Only a beginning could be made in this scientific project 
with the intermittent interest and support that could be obtained while 
it appeared that ample supplies of rubber were assured from the plan- 
tations in Malaya. 


A NEW REALM OF HUMAN ATTAINMENT 


From a scientific viewpoint the course of human progress is entering 
a new realm in adopting and developing the uses of rubber. Pro- 
found changes are involved, comparable to those encountered by our 
primitive predecessors in adopting fire, contriving tools, weapons, 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 369 


hunting gear, and fishing tackle, discovering fish poisons, building 
houses and boats, domesticating food plants and animals, developing 
textiles, ceramics, and graphic arts. All these activities and attain- 
ments, superposed and interacting with each other, were modified in 
many ways when metal tools replaced wood and stone, and again when 
iron and steel could be substituted for copper and bronze. Rubber is 
a material with new and different properties, not a food or a textile 
or a metal, but not inferior to any of these in its powers of modifying 
and transforming the activities and conditions of living in our civiliza- 
tion. Rubber had only a few uses among primitive peoples, but with 
us the uses are so many that no limit can be imagined, if our civilization 
is to continue. 

Rubber is a new realm not only in the sense of being only recently 
entered, but also as causing many abrupt changes in the lives of millions 
of people. Little analogy is found with the gradual developments of 
other natural resources that have altered conditions of life in the course 
of centuries. Rubber already has brought many profound transforma- 
tions to vast numbers of people, leaving very little of their former lives 
unaffected. In view of the extent and rapidity of this transformation 
it doubtless will be reckoned in the future as one of the major events of 
history, and yet the botanical basis and background of the change 
attained no public recognition during the first quarter-century of 
intensive utilization. 


SERVICE OF RUBBER TO SCIENCE 


Rubber is serving civilization in so many ways that efforts to enu- 
merate them become tiresome, but services to science often are omitted 
from such reckonings. Not only are airplanes, automobiles, trucks, 
speedboats, and countless other machines dependent on rubber, but also 
a world of scientific apparatus, the veritable tools of investigation. 
What would chemical laboratories be without the equipment made 
possible by rubber tubes and gaskets, or electric research without 
insulation? That chemistry should have achieved at this juncture the 
knowledge and skill to make synthetic rubber will doubtless feature 
with future historians as a “decisive battle” in the scientific field, an- 
other escape of civilization from a major disaster. The development 
of synthetic rubber lends a new interest and significance to natural 
rubber.? 

Another service to science is seen in the special studies of the rubber- 
bearing plants, many of which would otherwise have remained but 
little known, as most of the forms of plant life still are, especially in 

2A discussion of synthetic rubber and of chemical research connected with rubber will 


be found in a paper entitled “The Rubber Industry, 1839-1939,” by W. A. Gibbons, Ann. 
Rep. Smithsonian Inst. for 1940, p. 193, 1941. 


370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


tropical countries. Only a few of the species that are known to con- 
tain rubber have as yet been accessible to comparative study, but even 
these preliminary surveys have opened new chapters in botany. That 
many unknown and unexpected features should be found among the 
rubber-bearing plants need not be taken to mean that such plants as a 
class are peculiar, but only that our knowledge of and interest in the 
plant world still are strangely limited. 


RUBBER DISCOVERIES ACCIDENTAL 


Many writers have stressed the fact that Goodyear’s discovery was 
made accidentally, and this is true, to an even greater extent, of other 
contributions not less significant than Goodyear’s to the development 
of the rubber industry. Goodyear’s contribution is in no way dimin- 
ished by recognizing that the services of other men were likewise 
indispensable. Wickham’s exploit of 1876 in sending rubber seeds 
from Brazil to England for planting in India is frequently recounted, 
but two other names should be as widely recognized: La Condamine, 
who was concerned with rubber a century before Goodyear, and Rid- 
ley, who came half a century after Goodyear. 

Wickham’s exportation of rubber seeds from Brazil and Ridley’s 
discovery of a tapping method at Singapore were both voluntary 
contributions due solely to the interest and initiative of the two men 
involved. Neither had gone to the Tropics to study rubber, and the 
services that they rendered had not been planned or expected. Cross 
was being sent to Brazil at the time that Wickham was obtaining his 
shipment of 70,000 seeds by persuading the captain of a tramp 
steamer to take a chance of being rewarded. Previous seed shipments 
had failed, and that method of introduction was being abandoned. 
Cross, a few months later, took home a thousand young seedling 
plants, but only a few survived. Without Wickham’s seeds the ex- 
periments of that period could not have reached a practical scale. 

Ridley’s solution of the tapping problem also came, so to speak, from 
the side lines. Specialists in plant physiology had been sent to Ceylon 
and a station established for experiments with rubber trees, but under 
a policy of tapping the trees by methods carried over from Brazil, 
such discouraging results were obtained that Ridley had difficulty in 
getting his facts considered. Without the spontaneous interest of 
these two men, the history of rubber culture must have been com- 
pletely different. 

Even with these contributions, the outlook for rubber planting 
remained doubtful until actual production was demonstrated. As 
late as 1900 unfavorable opinions of Para rubber were reported in 
Java, where experimental studies of this and other rubber plants 
were supposed to have received more attention than in the British 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK Sy pil 


colonies. Further planting of Para rubber as a regular crop was 
no longer considered advisable on the basis of careful studies by 
agricultural specialists. For Java it appeared that Ficus elastica 
was more promising, and even on the general question of rubber 
plantations the Dutch investigators were said to have reached an 
adverse conclusion, on account of the small prospect of meeting the 
expense of competent and honest administration of the estates. 


THE FIRST EUROPEAN TO APPRECIATE RUBBER 


The statements of many books that rubber was “discovered” by 
La Condamine in 1736, are misleading, since rubber undoubtedly 
had been known and used by native peoples over most of tropical 
America through many generations. Many travelers and explorers 
had visited America before La Condamine, and several had reported 
the existence of rubber, but none had considered rubber as more than 
a curiosity, one of the many marvels of the New World, but with no 
impression of practical value. La Condamine was the first European 
to become constructively interested in rubber—the first to see that 
this tough, elastic substance might become valuable material in France 
and other civilized countries. 

Alexander von Humboldt and many other European travelers 
visited tropical America before and after La Condamine without 
receiving, or at least without reporting, any such impression of the 
potential importance of rubber. Thousands of Europeans—soldiers, 
sailors, missionaries, travelers, and settlers in America—had seen and 
handled rubber, as shown by casual references in several early books 
on America. Many incidental uses were noted by Sahagun, who 
reached Mexico in 1528, and by Hernandez, who came in 1570. Saha- 
gun also described many religious ceremonies among the Aztecs in 
which Castilla rubber, or wlli, was used with copal as a burnt offering, 
or made into sacred images of the gods. The resemblance of rubber 
to a living animal or to human tissues may be reflected in some of 
the native names. The Aztec name, wle, was adopted into Spanish 
in North America; in South America another native name, caucho, 
rendered in French as caoutchouc. Many languages of Central and 
South America have distinctive names for rubber or for the rubber 
tree. 

La Condamine was not a botanist or even a naturalist, but is usually 
described as an astronomer or mathematician, and also as a geographer 
or engineer. His errand in South America was to determine more 
definitely the figure of the earth by making astronomical measure- 
ments of sections of the meridian of Quito, close to the Equator. The 
expedition was sponsored by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, under 
the auspices of the King of France, Louis XV. Since the astronomical 


372 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


project was responsible for La Condamine’s visiting South America 
and seeing rubber in its natural state, rubber may be reckoned his- 
torically as a byproduct of astronomy. 

La Condamine went to South America by way of Panama and landed 
in “Peru” at the small port of Manta, actually on the coast of Ecuador 
north of Guayaquil. The Andes were ascended by way of Esmeral- 
das, another coast locality north of Manta. Heavy rains in the moun- 
tains made the trails impassable, and the few weeks of enforced delay 
in the coast district doubtless were responsible for his contacts with 
rubber. Thus a mere incident of travel appears to have had a much 
more important relation to human progress than anything else that 
La Condamine was able to contribute. No time would appear to have 
been lost by La Condamine in sending his first report on rubber to the 
Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, in 1736. A further account was 
published in 1745, soon after La Condamine returned to France. 


LA CONDAMINE IN BRAZIL AND GUIANA 


The fact that La Condamine descended the Amazon and visited 
French Guiana before returning to Europe is responsible for the 
strange confusion of the principal rubber trees already noted. The 
chief purpose for which rubber was being collected at the time of La 
Condamine’s visit was for making torches and candles, which are said 
to have burned very well. The evil smell of burning rubber comes 
largely from the sulfur that is added. At the time of La Conda- 
mine’s visit, supplies of rubber were being obtained from the eastern 
slopes of the Andes in the Maynas district of the upper Amazon, as 
well as from the forests along the Pacific coast. No rubber gathering 
on the lower Amazon was mentioned by La Condamine, but at Para 
small objects modeled from rubber were seen, and some of these were 
carried to French Guiana, where a search for rubber trees was started. 
Fresneau, an engineer who spent 14 years in this colony, found several 
latex-bearing trees, as reported through La Condamine to the Paris 
Academy in 1751. 

One of the Guiana trees was supposed from native information to 
be the kind that furnished rubber in Brazil, and this was described by 
Aublet in 1775 as Hevea guianensis. Several localities were noted, and 
the nuts were said to be gathered and eaten by the natives, the “al- 
mond” having a pleasant taste. La Condamine and Fresneau are not 
mentioned, but a reference is given to the “poor figure of the Guiana 
tree in the memoir of 1751.” The name “Hevea peruviana” engraved 
on Aublet’s plate 335 leaves no doubt that the Guiana tree was sup- 
posed to be the same that La Condamine had found on the coast of 
Esmeraldas, “northwest of Quito,” where Castilla grows, and the 
native name heve was encountered. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK aie 


Thus it came about that the name heve, used by the natives of Es- 
meraldas for the Castilla tree, was employed by Aublet as a generic 
designation for the Guiana rubber tree, and later was extended to the 
Para rubber tree. The writers who placed Esmeraldas in Brazil or 
in Venezuela, rather than in Ecuador, show the extent of confusion 
that a misleading name may generate. Ducke says in a footnote of his 
“Revision of the Genus Hevea,” in 1935: “I do not know why Aublet 
attributed the origin of the name heve to Esmeraldas on the Pacific 
coast of Ecuador, where the genus Hevea is unknown.” The reason is 
that the trees were assumed to be the same, since both produced rubber. 


A BASIC DISCOVERY IN EXTRACTING PARA RUBBER LATEX 


The rapid extension of the use of rubber during the present century 
was made possible by the discovery at Singapore about 1890 of a new 
method of tapping the Para rubber tree. The discovery was made by 
Henry N. Ridley, then in charge of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. 
A definite date is difficult to assign because the tapping experiments 
were made incidentally and not published by Ridley until 1897. Even 
then the report was fragmentary and not explicit, so that little ac- 
count has been taken of what in reality was a basic discovery that made 
plantation rubber feasible on a large scale. The idea that latex could 
be drawn repeatedly and at short intervals from the same wound, by 
paring the margin, doubtless seemed too absurd to be credited by rea- 
sonable people and was therefore difficult to disseminate. No effective 
record might have been made if Ridley had not been visited at Singa- 
pore in 1896 by David Fairchild, as described in an article in the 
Journal of Heredity for May 1928, “Dr. Ridley of Singapore and the 
Beginnings of the Rubber Industry.” 

Fairchild appears to have appreciated more clearly than Ridley that 
a definite and indispensable step had been taken in Ridley’s experi- 
ments. To Fairchild it seemed that Ridley had worked out “the most 
important single point of technique connected with the very vital 
problem of how to get the rubber out of the Hevea trees.” Fairchild’s 
evaluation of Ridley’s work is as follows: 

It is to Dr. Ridley that we owe the discovery that you can open a wound in 
the bark of the rubber tree, let it “bleed” and collect the latex as long as it will 
run, and when the wound dries cut it open again the next day and get not only 
another run of latex but a larger run than from the original incision. It is this 
discovery which led to the development of the modern methods of rubber tapping 
and, it may be fairly said, solved the planter’s difficulties; turned the trick so 
to say, in a critical period of the rubber industry. Every well informed manu- 
facturer in America will see that such a trick, such a discovery, had it been in 
the field of patentable inventions would have resulted in royalties sufficient to 
have enriched the discoverer and placed him in the class of the great inventors 
of the twentieth century. But it did not do this. Dr. Ridley today is a man of 


566766—44——25 


374 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


small means whose chief pleasure is in studying the herbarium material which he 
had collected years ago in that part of the world which he chose as a young man 
for his special field of study—the Malayan Region; and in the preparation of a 
Flora of that remarkable area of the tropics. 

The introduction of a new plant into a new region is an “event.” The first 
exploitation and adaptation of that plant to the conditions of life which surround 
the new plant immigrant is another “event.” And we must indeed be lacking 
in imagination if we fail to raise on a pinnacle the pioneers whose vision and 
ingenuity and scientific curiosity guided the developments of these vast and indis- 
pensable industries during their formative days. 


SCOPE OF RIDLEY’S DISCOVERY 


A more fateful discovery than Ridley’s method of harvesting the 
rubber of the Siphonia tree would be difficult to adduce from the 
pages of history. Many “epoch-making inventions” are recounted, 
but none that so promptly affected so many millions of people. In 
all civilized countries living conditions and social relations were 
profoundly changed in a few years. Even among primitive tribes 
in remote and backward regions of the Tropics, rubber cultivation had 
almost immediate effects. ‘Thousands of Malays, Hindus, and Chinese 
soon were engaged as contract laborers on the rubber plantations, 
while other thousands of even more primitive people were released 
from the gathering of wild rubber in forest regions of both hemi- 
spheres, and in effect were reprieved from extinction through Ridley’s 
discovery. 

A parallel may be seen in Eli Whitney’s invention of the saw gin 
for short-staple cotton, which had social and political significance 
in the rapid expansion of Negro slavery in the southern States, 
eventuating in the Civil War, but these effects were relatively local, 
while the rubber reactions were world-wide. The ascendancy of the 
northern nations of Europe may be ascribed to the introduction of the 
potato, but centuries were required for the potato sequence to work 
out, while less than half a century has elapsed since the first com- 
mercial planting of the Siphonia tree in 1896. 

Rubber production offered at once such definite advantages that 
only a few years were required for a new agricultural industry to be 
created in the East Indies, and new manufacturing industries in 
Europe and America, providing new systems of communication and 
transportation in all civilized countries. Rubber and gutta-percha 
as insulating materials made it possible for electricity to be utilized. 
Riding on rubber has become our “standard of living.” A vast exten- 
sion of the human environment has taken place. 

Hundreds of chemical and physical discoveries have contributed 
to “modern scientific progress,” but rubber in thousands of tons was 
necessary for the endless new applications to be developed. Ridley’s 
biological observation was the critical point in quantity production, 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK SD 


making it possible for our industrial and cultural transformations to 
go forward with such amazing speed. It might be said that Ridley 
turned on the rubber, and caused an industrial deluge. 


EXPLAINING THE WOUND RESPONSE 


Studies of the tapping problems of the Para rubber tree in the 
early period were confused by a special theory of wound response, 
devised to explain the’ gradually increasing flows of latex after the 
first tapping, which usually yields very little. The theory assumed 
a greater intensity of physiological action to account for more latex 
being formed in the bark adjacent to a tapping wound, but such a 
reaction is not indicated. The underlying causes, determined by 
later investigators, are the branching latex tubes, which form a con- 
tinuous network throughout the bark, and the fact that the latex 
becomes more liquid with a lower content of rubber. Subsequent 
tappings produce a freer flow because the tubes adjacent to the 
wound are gradually freed of the thicker, more creamy latex shown 
in its original state at the first tapping; other changes, of a nature 
to form more latex in the tissues around the wound, are not indicated. 

Instead of an effect of the tapping upon the adjacent tissues, the 
lack of such an effect is the remarkable fact that needs to be appre- 
ciated in order to understand that in the Para rubber tree renewal of 
the same wound may be repeated frequently and continued indefi- 
nitely. Because the latex tubes are united into a network, the supply 
of latex is always sufficient to replenish the tubes near the wound, 
and thus to restore the bark pressure. The entire system of the tree 
contributes to the drainage from the tapping wound. The prompt 
replacement of the latex and renewal of the bark may be viewed as 
. a remarkable provision of the tree against the wound reactions that 
otherwise might occur if the tissues remained depleted or became 
infected by fungi or bacteria, which rarely happens.* 


COMMERCIAL SURVEYS OF WILD RUBBER 


From the commercial standpoint it appeared that the search for 
resources of wild rubber had been carried to a practical conclusion 
in the later decades of the last century. With supplies of wild rub- 
ber from Brazil becoming inadequate, large expenditures were made 
by commercial agencies in exploring the tropical forest regions of 
both hemispheres. In Africa, Madagascar, and Malaya, many new 
rubber-bearing trees, vines, and “root-rubbers” were found and rap- 
idly exhausted, though several were exploited extensively during 

2A lack of wound response in an experiment with repeated tapping was reeognized by 


Karling in a latex-bearing tree (Couma guatemalensis), studied in eastern Guatemala as 
a possible substitute for chicle. See Amer. Journ. Bot., vol. 22, p. 580, 1933. 


376 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


periods of years. Such efforts continued until the plantations of Para 
rubber trees in the Malay Peninsula began to supply the market, and 
the need of searching further for wild rubber seemed to have passed. 

In reality the commercial surveys had taken only a partial view of 
the general problem of natural rubber. The rubber-producing plants 
were not studied or evaluated from the standpoint of agricultural 
production possibilities, but only with reference to their existence in 
large numbers over wide areas, in sufficient abundance to be exploited 
in commercial quantities. No commercia! interest would be taken in 
trees or plants limited to small areas or occurring as rare, widely scat- 
tered individuals. 

With a plant that is brought into cultivation, it obviously makes 
little difference whether the wild stock is scattered widely in nature 
or limited to a single district, or even to a single locality. Many spe- 
cies are localized, especially in tropical regions, to an extent that is 
seldom appreciated. The apparent uniformity of tropical forests al- 
lows us to suppose that the same species are widely distributed, but 
even where forests are continuous the species may prove to vary. 
Richard Spruce, after several years of intensive exploration in the 
Amazon valley, estimated that with every degree of latitude half of 
the species were changed. 

Alfred Russell Wallace, who visited Brazil during the same period 
that Spruce did, also failed to distinguish between the two types of 
trees that were being exploited in the Amazon valley. Even in 1908, 
in publishing Spruce’s Journals, Wallace writes of cutting the trees 
down as a method of utilization that had been applied to the Para 
rubber in the early days. Wallace held that the latex served for the 
growth of the trees and that tapping should be suspended during 
the flowering and fruiting season. 

Several species of Siphonia, or Hevea, have been described from the 
Amazon valley, but only one species of Castilla. The number of per- 
ceptibly different local forms of Castzla doubtless would run into 
scores or hundreds, if a thorough study could be made. Ten species 
were distinguished in a monograph by Pittier published in 1910, and 
others may be described, but the number that can be separated and 
classified by definite differences may not be much larger. The species 
of Castilla are less localized than in many tropical genera, the fleshy 
fruits being eaten by birds and monkeys, and the seed scattered. Vari- 
ations of structure or habits within the species, such as thicker bark 
or greater tolerance of drought or other unfavorable conditions, may 
have cultural importance far beyond the characters formulated in 
describing species in the usual manner, that is, from differences in 
leaves, flowers, or fruits. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK oe 


GENERA RELATED TO CASTILLA 


Several genera related to Castilla are worthy of being canvassed as 
rubber trees, in view of reports by botanical collectors that the latex 
was abundant and formed an elastic substance. Thus Olmedia aspera 
and Q. laevis were noted by Ruiz in 1784 at Pozuzo on the eastern 
slope of Peru as “trees that on incision give an abundance of very 
white milk, which, exposed to the air, turns into a very elastic resin of a 
reddish-chestnut color; it can be shaped into any form desired.” The 
presence of rubber may explain a statement by Sandeman in “A For- 
gotten River,” that a waterproof bark cloth is obtained from this 
Olmedia, which the Indians call Zlanchama. <A species of Perebea in 
Panama was described by James Collins as Castilla markamiana, and 
shares the native name wle with Castilla panamensis. Some of the 
Brazilian trees referred to Helicostylis have a notable similarity to 
Castilla ulei. 


GENERA RELATED TO PARA RUBBER 


Another rubber-bearing genus in South America, closely related to 
the Para rubber tree, was described by Bentham under the name J/- 
crandra. It seems to be widely distributed in South America, but 
apparently has not been found in sufficient abundance for commercial 
exploitation. Spruce used the name Muranda for this genus, of which 
he saw two species on a tributary of the Rio Negro, differing notably 
from the Para rubber tree in their simple leaves and clustered trunks, 
“often as many as ten from a root.” They were said to yield “pure 
rubber.” 

Several South American rubber trees belong to the genus Sapium, 
also a member of the spurge family. Some of the sapiums grow at 
rather high altitudes in the Andes, 6,000 to 8,000 feet, and produce 
what has long been known as “virgin rubber,” some of it reputed to 
be of excellent quality. Other species grow in the Amazon valley and 
are reported to share the habits of the Para rubber tree and to yield 
latex in the same manner, by the native method of making many wounds 
with small hatchets. This may mean that the latex tubes of Sapium 
form a continuous network as in the Para rubber. A plantation of 
70,000 Sapium trees was reported from Colombia in 1888 as “growing 
with great rapidity, and averaging about five feet a year,” according to 
a letter published in the Kew Bulletin of 1906. 


EVALUATION OF RUBBER TREES 


The rubber planter encounters the problems of choosing favorable 
natural conditions, devising suitable cultural methods, and selecting 


378 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the plants best adapted to the conditions under which he must oper- 
ate. That American planters in the early days gave their attention 
so exclusively to Castilla, and planters in the East Indies to the Para 
rubber, was not the result of any demonstration of the cultural su- 
periority of one tree or the other, but of becoming interested in the 
possibilities of the tree they had at hand. The desirability of many 
other species that ‘have been reported as promising remains to be 
determined. 

It is not to be expected that any one species will be found to have 
a sufficiently superior value under all conditions to warrant its being 
planted to the exclusion of all others. Rubber, like starch, is pro- 
duced in nature in many different environments ranging from deserts 
to swamps. The number of cultivated rubber plants will probably 
never equal that of the starchy cereals and root crops; but there is the 
same practical reason why the cultural requirements, hardiness, vigor, 
and productiveness of the different rubber plants should be consid- 
ered—not merely those of the distinct genera and species, but also 
those of the varieties of races into which each species will be found 
divisible by cultural selection. The cultural characters or adaptive 
differences of behavior under varied conditions are as important as 
differences in percentage of rubber, or even in quality of rubber, in 
determining whether production is practically feasible in competition 
with other crops. The adaptive ability of a tree or plant to grow 
readily on an extensive scale and produce abundantly under condi- 
tions that can be provided, is a basic requirement. 


REASONS FOR PREFERRING TREE CROPS 


Among the factors to be recognized in rubber production are the 
general advantages of tree crops over field crops, especially in tropical 
countries, in requiring less labor and affording greater protection of 
the soil against erosion. Rubber plants that can be grown as annuals 
or biennials in northern countries may be valued as insurance against 
emergencies without being expected to compete in normal production 
with rubber produced from tropical tree crops. The costs of clear- 
ing the land and weeding the crops are among the principal items 
of expense in tropical undertakings, although it is now recognized 
that these cultural activities often lead to rapid decline of soil fer- 
tility through surface erosion. The only permanent agricultures 
are those that do not involve the working of the soil. Denudation 
of the land through continued cultivation is now being recognized as 
a limiting factor of agriculture in many tropical regions. 

Vast areas in the Tropics have the status of waste lands, more or 
less denuded by previous cultivation and burning, and lacking the 
surface layer of fertile soil, which may be formed again if forest con- 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 379 


ditions are restored through the use of tree crops. Many areas of 
miscellaneous second-growth forests in tropical America, represent- 
ing various stages of reforestation, are formed mostly of worthless 
trees, which might be replaced by rubber forests to great advantage. 
Guatemala, for example, would be considered as a rather populous 
country, compared with many other regions, yet is estimated recently 
to have only 10 percent of the land in cultivation. Complete clear- 
ing and cultivation would not be necessary for replacing the present 
mixed growth of waste areas with rubber trees, such as Castilla or 
Funtumia, which are somewhat tolerant of thin soils and drought 
conditions. Such trees may furnish wood, fiber, or other useful ma- 
terials as byproducts, and also may shelter the early stages of Para 
rubber trees. 
RUBBER AS A GARDEN CROP 


Rubber trees need to be appreciated and popularized in all the tropi- 
cal countries. Although the tendency to think in terms of large plan- 
tations is difficult to escape, careful consideration will make it apparent 
that the Para rubber tree is remarkably well adapted to production 
on a small scale. Large plantations operated by contract labor as 
in the East Indies may be very difficult to establish in tropical America, 
but other systems of production may be practicable. Millions of 
people in tropical America are landowners only to the extent of 
small “gardens,” as they are called, where root crops, green vege- 
tables, potherbs, and fruit trees are grown, often with poultry or other 
farm animals, to meet some of the family needs or to provide a small 
surplus for sale or exchange. 

Replacing the native gardens with rubber plantations, or removing 
the garden people to rubber estates, may be practicable to a limited 
extent, but enlisting the interest of the people to add rubber trees to 
their gardens may supplement other lines of production, or even ex- 
ceed them, once the advantages of small-scale production are worked 
out and understood. 

With a small planting, as a dozen or a hundred rubber trees, col- 
lecting the latex is relatively light and pleasant work, to be done in the 
cool of the morning, and shared without detriment by women and 
children. No other labor is likely to be more remunerative to the small 
landowner than tapping rubber trees for an hour or two a day. The 
rubber harvest does not spoil if other work is more pressing. The 
requirements of tools and equipment for extracting the latex and 
preparing the rubber are extremely simple and cheap. The Para rub- 
ber tree is extremely well suited to the purposes of the small producer, 
and is the only tree that will yield rubber by regular tapping. 

Castilla trees are often planted or allowed to grow in dooryards in 
Mexico and Central America, and tapped occasionally, but the latex 


380 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


can be stolen by thieves and the trees mutilated by severe tapping, 
whereas the Para trees have little interest for rubber thieves. Castilla 
is considered beneficial to the soil, a claim also made for several of the 
tropical fig trees. Coffee and cacao grow well under the shade of 
Castilla and Para rubber trees. Both trees have an annual leaf fall, 
allowing subcultures a few weeks of sunlight. 

People who live in these tropical gardens have an initial advantage 
in raising their rubber trees at no expense, if seeds or seedlings are 
available. Little room is required for the young rubber trees, which 
are very slender at first, and interfere very little with other uses of 
such gardens. In addition to familiar fruits and medicinal trees, 
many useless “wild” trees are often allowed to grow in and around the 
tropical gardens and small farms, for protection from sun and wind. 
If only the useless trees in native gardens of tropical America were 
replaced by Para rubber trees, an extensive production would be as- 
sured, possibly more than from plantations in tropical America, where 
plantation labor is difficult to obtain. 

Local supplies of seeds or seedlings are the first requirement for al- 
lowing the Para rubber to spread widely as a garden crop in tropical 
America. The seeds have hard shells, but the kernels are soft and 
perishable, so that prompt planting is necessary unless special packing 
and handling are provided. The seeds may be planted “at the stake,” | 
or budded seedlings might be planted, if proper care is used. 


PROBLEMS OF RUBBER LATEX 


Many theories of the function of rubber in plants have been ad- 
vanced, but none has had general acceptance. A flow of latex may 
cover a wound, but many plants that contain rubber do not form 
latex. Other functions, as storage or transportation of water or food 
materials, may be performed by systems of latex tubes, apart from 
the rubber particles that the latex may carry. Rubber is not, like 
sugar, starch, or cellulose, to be viewed as a convertible storage product 
of further use in growth or tissue building, but is rather to be segre- 
gated in one part or another, the bark, the leaves, the fruits, or the 
roots in the various cases that are known, with or without the assistance 
of latex tubes. To consider rubber as a waste product makes more 
understandable its occurrence in so many unrelated plants, and in so 
many different tissues of the plants—principally the bark, leaves, and 
fruits. The tissues that are discarded are likely to contain more 
rubber than those that remain as permanent parts of the plant 
structure. 

RUBBER BY RULE OF THUMB 


In any latex-bearing tree or plant the presence or absence of good 
rubber can be determined by an extremely simple test made with the 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 381 


thumb and first finger. Only a small drop of latex is needed—not 
enough to spread beyond the opposable surfaces of thumb and finger 
that come in contact, where the skin is thick and resistant. In han- 
dling latex from any unknown plant, caution is advised not to permit 
the latex to touch any thin skin, as between the fingers, where juices 
of poisonous plants may cause painful injuries. The eyes, of course, 
as well as mucous membranes, are to be especially guarded. Many 
latex plants, especially in the dogbane and spurge families, have 
poisonous properties. Some of the fleshy euphorbias of Africa and 
Madagascar, in appearance much like cacti, contain acrid poisons. 
The rubber reactions can be learned without harm, however, if the 
latex is handled carefully and all traces of it are removed by dry rub- 
bing after the test. Native information regarding any plants that are 
considered caustic or poisonous should be sought, although many plants 
that are feared by natives are in reality harmless. Poisonous plants 
are relatively few in the Tropics, compared with our poison ivy and 
poison sumac so widely encountered in the United States, or with 
manchineel in southern Florida. Not only our woodlands are infested 
with poison ivy, but villages and cities. Precautions against poison ivy 
are likely to be effective with other poisonous plants. 

To make the rubber assay, the little drop of latex is pressed between 
the thumb and finger, which then are separated, exposing the surface 
films of latex to the air. After a few exposures, fine threads of 
elastic rubber may be seen stretching between the moist surfaces, 
and minute curds of coagulated rubber are formed. The quality of 
the rubber may be judged from the length, toughness, and elasticity 
of the threads that appear, and by the formation of a minute roll 
or spindle of rubber that separates cleanly from the skin when the 
thumb and finger are rubbed together. If of good quality, the minute 
sample is not adhesive and shows its elasticity and toughness on 
being pulled. Samples that are not tough are also less elastic and 
soon become sticky on the surface, while samples of good rubber 
remain unchanged. Samples of poor quality, even though they show 
favorable reactions at first, soon deteriorate, sometimes within a few 
minutes. 

When a flow of latex is encountered in an unknown plant the 
question naturally arises whether it contains rubber that would be 
of value if commercial quantities were obtainable. On this question, 
“Ts it rubber?” the thumb and finger may give in a few minutes a 
fair judgment. After a tree or plant is seen to contain rubber, the 
finder may be interested to learn its native name and bring home 
samples of the leaves, flowers, and fruits, so that the species may be 
identified and studied further. Although the finding of large re- 
sources of wild rubber in latex trees or plants that are abundant in 


382 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


nature is no longer to be expected, it is in order to take account of 
any rubber bearers that may be encountered in regions that have not 
received careful explorations. 


RUBBER AND NEAR-RUBBER 


Two very different meanings are carried by the word rubber—the 
more common physical meaning of a highly elastic substance, and a 
more general chemical meaning, admitting as rubber all the sub- 
stances sufficiently related to rubber to show the same reactions with 
solvents and precipitants, with little regard to the factor of elasticity 
which seems so all-important from physical and mechanical view- 
points. The trees or plants that produce fully elastic, high-grade 
rubbers are relatively few, the best known being the Para rubber 
tree, the Castilla tree, and the Assam rubber tree. Several others, 
the African rubber tree (Funtwmia), the African rubber vines (Lan- 
dolphia), the intisi rubber of Madagascar (Huphorbia intisi), the 
Sapium, or virgin rubbers of South America, and the Cryptostegia 
vine may also qualify as producers of real rubbers. To be reckoned 
as near-rubbers are gutta-percha, balata, chicle, guayule, goldenrods, 
milkweeds, and many other rubberlike gums, some of them of distinct 
industrial and commercial value. 

Some of the near-rubbers, like some of the synthetic rubbers, have 
special uses which they may serve even better than the best elastic 
rubber. Gutta-percha, for example, had developed) many special 
uses for which rubber became serviceable after being vulcanized. 
Making rubber more like gutta-percha was one of the immediate 
advantages of vulcanization, rubber being much cheaper. Gutta- 
percha was indispensable to the early discoveries and applications 
of electricity. Insulating the first Atlantic cables was the epoch- 
making contribution of gutta-percha. If rubber had not arrived, 
gutta-percha doubtless would have been the great wonder-working 
material, and all the other nonelastic or slightly elastic gums doubt- 
less would have had relatively greater values than they can attain in 
competition with rubber. Yet each of these substitute substances is 
worthy of being considered from the standpoint of possible use and 
potential improvement. The advance of rubber chemistry may make 
it possible to improve the quality of the rubber material in any 
plant by simple treatment in connection with the processes of ex- 
traction or of manufacture. 


RUBBER WITHOUT LATEX 


Even if rubber were confined to plants with latex, to make a com- 
plete canvass of the rubber bearers would be a large undertaking, but 
no such limit can be set to the plants that need to be examined to 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 383 


determine the presence of rubber. With rubber viewed as a waste 
product, it might be formed in any group of plants, and indeed is 
found in many plants that have no specialized latex system or other 
indication of rubber. The Z'ucommia tree of China, though not pro- 
vided with latex, has the rubber material sufficiently segregated to show 
many fine elastic threads when the leaves or the bark are broken and 
pulled apart. The guayule shrub is the typical example of a rubber 
producer with no latex or other external sign, the presence of the gum 
being learned from the Indians who obtained it by chewing the bark. 

The tendency to think of rubber only in terms of latex plants still 
is dominant. The only investigator to face the question of finding 
rubber among the plants without latex was the great inventor, Thomas 
A. Edison, who was inclined to believe that the storehouse of nature, 
if sufficiently searched, would meet any special requirements. In the 
hope of finding rubber in a plant that could be grown in the United 
States, preferably as a field crop, large numbers of weeds and other 
common plants were assayed for rubber, leading to the discovery of 
rubber among the goldenrods. Many members of this group were 
subjected to intensive study and selection, to find a type of plant 
adapted to general cultivation. Because they were so common and 
so widely distributed in the United States, the goldenrods appeared 
promising, but cultural limitations were encountered. The rubber 
is formed mostly in the leaves, and these are difficult to harvest, many 
falling off before the plants mature. 

While the goldenrods were being investigated, thousands of other 
plants, mostly natives of our southern States or of adjacent districts 
of Mexico, were examined, and rubber was found, at least in small 
traces, in hundreds of species where none had been known. Some of 
the plants were propagated for preliminary tests, but the goldenrods 
remained the chief interest. Records of Edison’s work were placed 
with the United States Department of Agriculture, and the rubber 
assays were continued on many other plants. Such assays no doubt 
are being made in many other countries in view of the present scarcity 
of rubber. An eventual completion of the Edison project may be 
hoped for—a world-wide extension of the survey he undertook. Edi- 
son, like La Condamine, contributed a new element of interest in the 
science of rubber, the project of determining all the potential sources 
of production. 

Although Edison’s search was projected for herbs or shrubs to be 
used for field crops, it should, of course, extend to trees—not only to 
those of temperate regions, but to the tropical trees as well. Rubber 
trees or lianas without latex are as likely as shrubs or herbs. Eucom- 
mia is an example of sucha tree. Even if important rubber discoveries 
were not made, such a survey could be expected to yield valuable ex- 


384 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


perience and information, for, doubtless, many other materials as im- 
portant as rubber remain to be discovered. 


RUBBER-FORMING CELLS IN CASTILLA LATEX 


Much has been written about rubber latex as a chemically balanced 
emulsion or suspension of small particles of rubber, without consider- 
ing biological facts discovered at the beginning of the present century. 
The bulletin on Castilla rubber published in 1903, in a chapter en- 
titled “The Structure of Latex,” referred to a paper by Molisch de- 
scribing a rubber globule as surrounded by a thin coating of proto- 
plasm, with a small nucleus on one side. This observation was con- 
firmed in a study of fresh Castilla latex in eastern Guatemala in June 
1907. The globule of rubber material is clearly distinct from the 
protoplasmic envelope, which often shows in profile a somewhat thick- 
ened area, interpreted as a nucleus, of a standard width and thickness, 
but with the peripheral margin somewhat uneven. The globules of 
the fresh latex are in rapid Brownian movement, but gradually come 
to rest, when it can be seen that the peripheries of contiguous globules 
are not at first in optical contact, although the thin separating layer 
eventually disappears, so that the circles of rubber appear to fuse 
where contacts occur. At the same time the rubber material becomes 
distinctly more transparent than when the latex is in fresh condition. 
An oxidizing process is suggested by the gradual change, showing first 
a narrow hyaline rim around the margin of a cover glass, while the 
central area is still opalescent like the fresh latex. 


CASTILLA HANDICAPPED BY AN ENZYME 


The presence of a natural ferment or oxidizing enzyme in the Cas- 
tilla tree has complicated several problems of utilization of the rub- 
ber, and of the tree as well. The latex as it oozes from the margins of 
a cut is creamy white, but in a few minutes shows a brownish tinge, 
and drops of watery brownish liquid soon appear to separate from the 
creamy latex and run down the bark of the tree. Some of the creamy 
latex may run down, or all may remain in the cut, to form the “scrap 
rubber,” which gradually darkens on the surface to nearly black. The 
shreds or strands of rubber, usually pulled from the cuts in 2 or 8 days, 
are white or light color inside, but eventually blacken throughout. 

More serious than these color changes is the slow, persistent digestive 
or corrosive action of the enzyme on the rubber. After a few weeks or 
months the surface of a rubber sample becomes soft and sticky, and 
the change continues gradually through months and years, so that 
even a large mass of rubber eventually is reduced to paste. Washing 
the latex was tried in the early years, to prevent discoloration and 
softening of the rubber, but this proved to be entirely ineffective. Such 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 385 


disintegration naturally gave the impression that Castilla rubber is 
inferior to Para rubber, though in reality no difference has been estab- 
lished by comparison of material not affected by the enzyme. 

Since most of the rubber that reached Europe and the United 
States in the time of Goodyear came from the Castilla tree, the tend- 
ency to become sticky was often supposed to be a general quality of 
rubber. Thus Goodyear’s efforts to develop a treatment of rubber 
that would keep it from becoming sticky, the efforts that led to the 
accidental discovery of vulcanization, hark back to the enzyme. When 
Para rubber from Brazil proved not to be sticky, it was naturally con- 
sidered a superior kind. 

That some of the Castilla rubber, even in the early days, was not 
sticky, may be inferred from the extent to which rubber was being 
used in England and America before Goodyear’s discovery was made. 
Even the uses of rubber among the Indians of Mexico and Central 
America would not have developed with a sticky material. The In- 
dians knew how to treat the rubber to keep it from becoming sticky, 
by spreading the latex in thin layers on large leaves and exposing it 
on open ground to the heat of the sun, thus destroying the enzyme. 
The native procedure in coagulating the Castilla rubber, witnessed 
and photographed in the Soconusco district of southwestern Guate- 
mala in 1902, was described and illustrated in the bulletin of 1903. 
The samples of Castilla rubber prepared by the native “uleros” re- 
mained in good condition for more than 20 years, as little affected by 
age as samples of Para rubber, showing that the treatment had been 
completely effective in destroying the enzyme. Samples from washed 
latex seemed to deteriorate even more rapidly than others, perhaps 
because the enzyme was more thoroughly distributed among the rub- 
ber particles. It was known already that an enzyme was responsible 
for the deterioration of the Castilla rubber, and that the enzyme 
could be destroyed simply by heating the latex, as published by Parkin 
in 1900, in the Annals of Botany. 

Although the demand for rubber increased more rapidly after 
Goodyear’s discovery was made, the previous century, between La 
Condamine and Goodyear, had witnessed a gradual advance. The 
properties and uses of rubber, largely in waterproofing, furnished the 
last chapter on “Vegetable Substances” in the “Library of Entertain- 
ing Knowledge,” published at London in 1838, concluding with a 
statement of imports and prices. 

More than fifty-two thousand pounds of caoutchouc were imported into England 
in 1830, being nearly double the quantity brought during the preceding year. 
The consumption for the year ending April 5, 1833, is stated at 178,676 lbs. Its 
price is from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 3d. per lb.; the duty upon it being 5d. per lb. The 


increase in the demand is to be ascribed to the application of the substance as 
an article of general utility. 


386 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The sources of the raw rubber were not stated, but even Brazilian 
rubber of that period came mostly from Castilla. Methods of treating 
rubber in England may have involved heating it enough to destroy 
the enzyme. Nothing was said of rubber being sticky. 

A discovery made in Haiti in 1930 in relation to the enzyme of 
Castilla showed that the enzyme may be destroyed while the latex is 
still in the bark. Abundant threads of elastic rubber were found that 
separated readily from the decaying bark of Castilla logs, known to 
have been felled nearly 3 years before. The usual failure of proper 
coagulation to take place in the bark may be ascribed to the oxidizing 
enzyme, and the exceptional occurrence of good rubber was ascribed 
to the fact that the logs had not been shaded but lay in an open place 
where the trees had stood. 

The pertinence of the expression “oxidizing enzyme” is appreci- 
ated when it is known that the Castilla latex as it flows from the tree 
will retain its creamy color and show no separation of the rubber 
material if kept from the air by being corked in a glass bottle. Fara- 
day had a bottle of rubber latex from southern Mexico which is said 
to have reached England very nearly in the same state in which it 
came from the tree; a slight film of solid caoutchouc had formed on 
the surface of the cork which closed the bottle. Efforts have been 
made in the present century to ship Castilla latex to the United States 
in tin cans, but the latex blackened and spoiled, or the rubber coagu- 
lated, as it does in bottles when not corked. 


LATEX SEPARATE FROM SAP 


Another fact relating to the enzyme was discovered in June 1907 
in experimental tapping of Castilla trees in eastern Guatemala, on 
the Trece Aguas estate near Senahi between Panzos and Cahabéon. 
It was noted that occasional drops of latex exuded from the surfaces 
of the tapping wounds after removal of the scrap rubber, and that 
these drops did not show the usual separation of a brown liquid, nor 
the usual staining of the rubber. 

These creamy white drops were observed repeatedly during the day, 
but no discoloration took place, and the latex eventually coagulated 
without darkening. The drops resulted, obviously, from the loss by 
the latex tubes of their plugs of coagulated rubber when the “scrap” 
was pulled from the cuts. Considering these drops as samples of the 
latex as it exists in the tubes, the failure to show any of the discolor- 
ing fluid that gradually separates from latex in the tapping cuts of 
Castilla was specially noted. Thus the behavior of these nonstain- 
ing drops of latex brought into question the general assumption that 
the enzyme is a normal constituent of the latex of the Castilla tree. 
It is known, of course, that the latex tubes are separate from the other 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 387 


tissues of the bark, but it appears that sap as well as latex exudes 
in the tapping cuts and that the two are mixed, to the detriment of 
the rubber. 


SPECIALIZED BRANCHES AND LEAVES IN CASTILLA 


Botanical textbooks do not prepare us to appreciate the vegeta- 
tive specializations of plants. The floral organs in many families 
are highly specialized and have been studied in great detail, while 
little account has been taken of different forms of branches and leaves, 
even among agricultural plants where pecularities of the vegetative 
organs often determine methods of culture or pruning. Several ex- 
amples of two distinct kinds of branches were described in a publica- 
tion of the United States Department of Agriculture in 1911, Bulletin 
198, “Dimorphic Branches of Tropical Crop Plants; Cotton, Coffee, 
Cacao, the Central American Rubber Tree, and the Banana.” 
Specialized branching habits in the Para rubber tree were also re- 
ported in 1930. 

The vegetative parts of plants, like the flowers themselves, are 
formed as a succession of equivalent structural units, known to mor- 
phologists as metamers or phytomers. Each unit consists theoret- 
ically of two structural elements, a stem section or caulomer, and a 
leaf section or phyllomer. Either of these elements may be sup- 
pressed, but both are present in normal vegetative metamers. It is 
usual to think of the vegetative metamers as all alike, and of floral 
metamers as of many forms. In reality the vegetative metamers are 
capable of being as definitely specialized as the floral metamers, some 
as preceding the flowers, others as forming specialized branches. 

Not only the structures and functions of two kinds of branches are 
different in Castilla, but also the forms of the leaves, showing that the 
vegetative specializations are deep-seated and long-standing. No 
other tree has afforded more outstanding examples of vegetative 
specialization than Castilla. The sexes are on separate trees, the in- 
florescences are of three kinds, the branches of two kinds, and the 
leaves of four kinds. An adaptive advantage of the specialized 
branching habits is seen in the fact that Castilla outgrows the Para 
rubber tree in the early stage of development, before fruiting begins. 
Instead of the early growth being limited to the production of a very 
slender trunk as in the Para rubber tree, the young Castilla trees de- 
velop specialized lateral branches and soon form a thicker trunk and 
a thicker layer of latex-bearing bark, so that in a few years the total 
content of rubber in a Castilla tree may be several times larger than in 
a Para rubber tree. Illustrations of Castilla trees, showing their rapid 
growth and peculiar branching habits, were published in 1903, 


388 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


TWO FORMS OF BRANCHES IN CASTILLA 


The habits of growth of Castilla under forest conditions, where the 
trees have tall, cylindrical trunks are shown in plate 1. In open places 
branches are produced only a few feet from the ground, as in plates 2, 
3,and 4. The upper figure in plate 4 shows a young plantation of Cas- 
tilla with all the trees producing the slender horizontal branches that 
mark the juvenile stage of this tree, preceding the production of the 
stout ascending branches that form the permanent framework of the 
tree, as shown in the mature tree in plate 2. Two young trees also 
are shown in plate 2, and the mature tree has a new shoot with large 
leaves on long horizontal branches, like the young trees. 

The horizontal lateral branches, slender and simple, are the out- 
standing feature of the Castilla tree, since they bear most of the leaves 
and all the flowers and fruits. Yet all the branches of this type are 
temporary and deciduous, being released after two or three seasons by 
a basal socket of abscission. The leaves of the lateral branches are 
oblong, large, and pendent, inserted in two ranks. Lateral branches 
are produced only on new growth, one branch from each stem section 
of the trunk, rising from an axillary bud. The lateral branches re- 
main simple because no leaf buds are produced, only flower buds. 

The lower lateral branches often grow several feet long, and are to 
be considered as the most specialized, since even the flower buds are 
suppressed. The basal joint of a lateral branch is notably shorter than 
the others, and the leaf is suppressed. The leaves near the base of a 
lateral branch are not as large as those farther out, and in a few weeks 
may turn yellow and fall off. Leaves of lateral branches are often 
found with one of the auricles distinctly lobed, always on the lower 
side, toward the base of the branch. The upper auricle may be larger 
than the lower, but is never lobed. 

The branches of the trunk, those that provide the permanent frame- 
work of the tree, usually develop much later than the lateral branches. 
They do not project horizontally like the lateral branches, but are up- 
right or ascending, and are not self-pruning at the base. They are 
not produced consecutively at each joint of the trunk, as the lateral 
branches are, but are relatively few, and do not arise from the axil of 
a leaf but from an extra-axillary bud at the right or left of a lateral 
branch. The location of the extra-axillary buds is consistent in each 
tree, so that the trees can be distinguished readily as right-handed or 
left-handed with respect to the buds that. give rise to the permanent 
branches. The leaves of the trunk are not distichous like those of the 
lateral branches, but in several ranks, probably representing a spiral 
of five-thirteenths. Two or three short, leafless joints are formed at the 
base of a permanent branch, instead of the single short joint on a 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK: 389 


lateral branch. The leaves of the branches are like those that subtend 
the lateral branches on the original trunk. 

From a morphological viewpoint the lateral branches of Castilla 
may be interpreted as inflorescences that have developed a special 
form of leaves and assumed a major proportion of the vegetative 
functions. This appears strikingly in the young trees, the lower 
lateral branches growing to the greatest length, often 10 or 12 feet, 
and yet not bearing any flowers or fruits. The shorter laterals, far- 
ther up the trunk, most of them only 3 to 4 feet long, produce flowers 
or fruits in a continuous series, except on a few of the basal joints. 

The long laterals of the lower part of the trunk may be compared 
to the spreading rosette leaves of many herbaceous plants. A wide 
expanse of foliage is formed on young trees standing in open places 
where the branches have full sunlight and develop symmetrically 
so that the ground underneath is well shaded. An adaptive function 
of the specialized branching is seen in the rapid and continuous de- 
velopment of further new sections of the trunk, each with its lateral 
branch, and these in turn soon replacing those lower down. The 
young trees are of striking appearance, regular in form and vivid in 
color. Apart from the interest in rubber, Castilla trees might well 
be planted around schools in southern Florida, and in other tropical 
countries, to facilitate the study of the vegetative specializations. 


SPECIALIZED LEAVES OF DIMORPHIC BRANCHES 


As previously indicated, the leaves of lateral branches of Castilla 
are different from those of the main trunk and the permanent 
branches. The oblong form, the pinnate venation, and the short 
petioles are the outstanding features of the lateral-branch leaves. 
Compared with the leaves of the lateral branches, those of the trunk 
and the permanent branches are relatively short and broad, and the 
petioles notably longer. The venation of the trunk leaves is mark- 
edly different, being palmate rather than pinnate, with a basal vein 
on each side more oblique and longer than the others. The secondary 
veins along the lower side of these long primaries are much stronger 
than other secondary veins, sometimes attaining a length of more 
than 2 inches. The leaves of the trunk and its permanent branches 
often appear as reduced or rudimentary. Some of them are only 
4 or 5 inches long and less than 8 inches broad. Such leaves may be 
seen only on new growth, since they usually turn yellow and fall off 
in a few weeks. On other trees the trunk leaves may be nearly as 
wide as the branch leaves but only half the length, broadly shouldered 
or angled at the side, with less than half the number of primary veins, 
and the large basal vein on each side strongly developed. 

566766—44—_26 


390 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


TWO PRELIMINARY LEAF FORMS IN CASTILLA 


In addition to the leaves of the trunk and those of the lateral 
branches, two other forms of leaves precede those found on mature 
trees. A seedling stage of development may be recognized, and also 
a juvenile stage, between the small seedlings and the stage of form- 
ing lateral branches. A young Castilla tree just beginning to develop 
lateral branches is shown in plate 5, with two of the large juvenile 
leaves still in place; above these large leaves is a much smaller, heart- 
shaped leaf subtending one of the lateral branches. Preceding the 
formation of branches, several joints of the axis produce what may be 
considered as juvenile leaves, with large blades and long petioles 
as their outstanding features. 

Usually the petioles of the juvenile leaves are 3 to 5 inches long, 
sometimes 6 to 8 inches, while leaf blades may be more than 20 inches 
long and 8 to 10 inches wide. Leaves of the juvenile form occur also 
on sprouts from stumps or wounded trees and may be even larger 
than those of seedling trees. Juvenile leaves a foot wide and nearly 
2 feet long were found on stump shoots in Panama June 1923, much 
exceeding the largest leaves on lateral branches of Castilla panamensis, 
even where growth is luxuriant. 

The transition from the large, long-stalked juvenile leaves to the 
leaves that subtend the lower branches may be gradual, but often is 
remarkably abrupt, with leaf blades smaller and petioles shorter. The 
normal leaves of the trunk and permanent branches in Castilla elastica 
have petioles about 2 inches long, with the blades 6 to 7 inches long 
and 5 to 6 inches wide. The leaves of the lateral branches in vigorous 
young trees may attain a length of 15 to 20 inches and a breadth of 
6 to 7 inches, but with petioles only 1 inch long, often equaled or ex- 
ceeded by the broadly rounded basal auricles. 

Preceding the large juvenile leaves are the small, short-petioled 
leaves of the seedling stage, only 2 or 8 inches long, as shown in plate 
6. The first two leaves of the seedling, shorter and broader than the 
others, and nearly opposite, may be mistaken for cotyledons. They are 
borne on a long stem section or epicotyl, while the true cotyledons 
remain in the ground, no hypocotyl] being formed. The paired basal 
leaves, borne on a long stem section or epicotyl, are broadly cordate 
and open-veined, in contrast with the alternate, oblong, close-veined 
leaves that follow, between the epicotyl leaves and the enlarged juve- 
nile leaves. Thus the foliage of the Castilla tree may be considered as 
a series of specialized leaf forms: cotyledons, basal leaves or epicoty- 
ledons, seedling leaves, juvenile leaves, trunk leaves, and branch leaves. 
Castilla thrives in southern Florida and is worthy of study from the 
standpoint of structural specialization, apart from its economic 
interest. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 391 


PROPAGATION OF CASTILLA FROM PERMANENT BRANCHES 


The specialized branching habits must be recognized in order to 
appreciate the fact that Castilla is readily propagated from cuttings 
of the permanent branches. Cuttings of lateral branches would not 
serve, even if roots were formed, since lateral branches have no vege- 
tative buds. Many cases were encountered in southern Mexico in 1902 
where roadside Castilla trees had been planted as fence stakes, and 
had grown into large trees. 

Propagation from cuttings is a cultural expedient that may be ap- 
plied to Castilla in the event that suitable methods of mechanical ex- 
traction are developed and a rapid extension of production from 
Castilla is attempted. Abundant material would be available in dis- 
tricts where abandoned plantations still exist, and such cuttings could 
be shipped readily if needed in other localities. 

With Castilla grown in forest formation and the trees lumbered out 
for mechanical extraction of the rubber, the smaller limbs of the more 
productive trees might be utilized in new plantings. Time and labor 
might be saved in thus avoiding the need of seed beds, transplanting, 
and caring for young seedlings. Sprouts that grew from the stumps 
of productive trees also might be used for propagation with no loss of 
time in obtaining the advantages of selection. 

Although Castilla grows generally as a forest tree, it is rarely found 
in deep forests, but is like the related trumpet tree or Cecropia in 
being better adapted to relatively open “second-growth” forests, on 
lands previously cleared and planted for a season or two, under the 
native system of agriculture. 


FOREST ADAPTATIONS OF THE PARA RUBBER TREE 


The natural adaptations of a plant are clues to its cultural require- 
ments. The seedling and sapling stages of the Para rubber tree show 
several peculiar characters that render them specially adapted to 
undergrowth conditions in tropical forests. Many types of plants 
are definitely specialized to live as undergrowth, and the development 
of undergrowth vegetation in the forests of the Amazon valley is 
probably greater than in any other region. The seedlings of forest 
trees live at first as undergrowth plants, and have their share of 
specially adapted characters. Unless these adaptations are recognized, 
several features in the behavior of the young Para rubber plants may 
not be understood. 

Some of the specialized shade plants require protection and do 
not thrive in the open, while others can grow in open places but with 
certain changes of accommodation, such as shortening the joints of 
the stems, branching closer to the ground, reducing the leaf surfaces, 


392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


and thickening the tissues of the leaves. Such adjustments to condi- 
tions are shown in the Para rubber tree, but to a rather slight extent. 
Although the seedling foliage is delicate, exposure to the sun is not 
injurious as long as the soil and the air conditions do not reach a state 
of stress or injurious shortage of moisture. With other conditions 
sufficiently favorable, more growth may be made in the sun than in 
the shade, but the manner of growing is the same. 

The adaptive specializations of the Para rubber tree offer several 
complete contrasts with those of the Castilla tree. The number of 
specialized features is nearly as great, but they are not along parallel 
lines, or even analogous. Instead of developing branches 3 or 4 feet 
from the ground, where the Castilla tree produces its longest lateral 
branches, the Para rubber tree normally produces no branches at all 
to a height of 12 to 20 feet. The suppression of all branch-forming 
buds on the many joints or sections of the trunk is a specialized feature, 
since it is possible for branches to be formed at any height if the 
trunk is cut back. Even in the axils of the cotyledons are buds that de- 
velop if the plumule is removed. This makes it possible for the seed- 
lings to be split, by methods described and illustrated by Loomis in 
1942, and two plants raised from the same seed. 

The habit of branching in the Para rubber tree is consistent with the 
habit of forming the leaves in clusters or “flushes.” Branching be- 
gins abruptly, with several vegetative buds developing at the same 
time from the axils of several leaves of the same whorl or cluster, at 
nearly the same level. The formation of such a cluster of branches 
normally makes an end of the main trunk of the tree. In exceptional 
cases only two or three branches are formed in the first whorl, and the 
trunk may continue its upward growth until more branches are de- 
veloped, but after a normal whorl of 6 to 12 branches has developed, 
a spreading or ascending treetop is usually formed, with no indica- 
tion of a central trunk. A brief account of “Branching Habits of the 
Hevea Rubber Tree,” explaining their cultural significance, was pub- 
lished in 1930. 

The earlier fruiting of the Castilla tree is determined by the habits 
of branching. Although the lowest branches of Castilla usually 
have no flowers or fruits, they are of the fruiting type, and the func- 
tional fruiting stage is soon reached, as in plate 2, often within 5 or 6 
feet from the ground. At the corresponding stage of growth the 
Para rubber tree has only half completed the development of its 
primary upright as a simple, straight rod, normally without the few 
branches shown at the right in plate 11. The uniform suppression 
of branches on the many trunk sections that form the primary up- 
right of the Para rubber tree is therefore to be considered as a special- 
ized feature of adaptation to forest conditions, The numerous differ- 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 393 


ences in adaptive characters between the Castilla and the Para rubber 
tree emphasize the need for critical comparison of the cultural require- 
ments of the two trees. 


BRANCHING HABITS OF PARA RUBBER TREE 


As a consequence of the habits of branching in the Para rubber 
tree, two distinct phases of growth may be recognized: a juvenile 
phase that includes the development of a simple primary upright, 
and an adult phase that comprises the subsequent growth of the 
tree, after the formation of branches. The pattern of growth in 
the young tree is characterized by the suppression of lateral buds 
in all the joints of the trunk, which results in the formation of a 
tall, simple trunk as rapidly as possible; in the adult phase many 
diverging branches are formed, and the upward growth of the trunk 
to form a central axis of the tree is discontinued. 

Although the branching of individual Para rubber trees is ex- 
tremely variable, there is a notable tendency to form a cluster or 
whorl of branches at the end of the primary upright, so that many 
of the trees have the form of a brush or candelabrum. In exposed 
places, where the trees are checked or stunted, the branching pattern 
is often disturbed, and a few branches are formed along the trunks, 
usually as singles or pairs, before a normal whorl of branches is 
produced; or the branching pattern may remain irregular. 


INTERMITTENT GROWTH OF TRUNK 


The pattern of branching undoubtedly has a relation to the mode 
of development of the trunk, by flushes or spurts of growth. Each 
period of activity results in the formation of a new section of the 
trunk, composed of numerous joints of different lengths. The ter- 
minal leaf-bearing members of a growth section are much shorter 
than the basal metamers, which often are without leaves, or have 
the leaves reduced to minute hooklike rudiments. 

The development of a new growth section is very rapid, so that 
the entire whorl of leaves is produced practically simultaneously, 
following a period of rest when the terminal bud remains completely 
dormant. Under forest conditions, with the rubber seedlings re- 
ceiving little light and competing with other vegetation, long intervals 
may elapse, perhaps entire seasons, between the development of suc- 
cessive growth sections. 

It is not difficult to see that the habit of intermittent growth may 
have advantages under forest conditions where light is deficient. The 
only seedlings that can be expected to develop on the floor of the deep 
forest are those that live with very little light. The chance of reach- 


394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


ing maturity may depend very acutely upon the ability of the plant 
to take full advantage of the light that reaches it. The danger of 
the young plant losing any light by shading its own leaves is avoided 
by the arrangement of the leaves in rosettes, forming a circular 
cluster at the end of the shoot, like a small umbrella. 


LEAVES ARRANGED IN ROSETTES 


The leaves that form a rosette are of different sizes and have 
petioles of different lengths, so that the rosette arrangement gives 
them full exposure to the light. The complete suppression of the 
leaves on the lower joints of each of the growth sections—the leaves 
that would be shaded by the terminal rosette—is another feature of 
the arrangement. The leafless lower joints add notably to the length 
of the section and contribute to the height of the young tree. With 
every section that is added the light conditions are improved and the 
tree’s chances are increased of emerging eventually through the roof 
of the forest and finding a place in the sun. 

The number of leaves in a rosette is increased rapidly in the suc- 
cessive sections that are formed, from the 2 leaves of the first stage 
of the seedlings to 12 or 15 leaves. Vigorous plants in the second 
and third seasons may have from 20 to 30 leaves in a rosette, while 
5 or 6 of the lower joints of the growth section are without leaves. 


MANY LEAFLESS METAMERS 


A further specialization for forest conditions is seen in the suppres- 
sion of the leaves on many of the metamers, the structural units that 
make up the trunk of the Para rubber tree. The first stage of the 
seedling is highly specialized in this respect, with basal joint or 
epicotyl, the first trunk section above the cotyledons, not bearing 
leaves, although remarkably elongate. Epicotyls measuring 9 to 14 
inches in length were noted in Haiti. The Castilla epicotyl ends with 
a pair of leaves, as shown in plate 6, while that of the Para rubber 
tree has the leaves suppressed, and two or three shorter leafless meta- 
mers may be formed above the epicotyl, below the first pair of leaves. 

The long epicotyl and adjacent leafless metamers of the Para rub- 
ber seedlings, shown in plates 7 and 8, carry the first leaves often a 
foot or more above the ground, much higher than the short epicotyl 
of Castilla, shown in natural size in plate 6. Thus it may be said that 
the seedlings of the Para rubber tree have all the leaves suppressed 
in the lower stem sections corresponding to those of Castilla shown 
in plate 6, where all the metamers bear leaves. 

As seen in plates 7 and 8, the first two leaves of the Para rubber 
seedlings are borne at nearly the same level, while the next leaf above 
this first pair usually stands alone at the end, above an intervening 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 395 


series of leafless metamers, usually three to five, corresponding to 
the leafless metamers below the first leaves. Thus the alternation of 
groups of leafless and leaf-bearing metamers in the subsequent devel- 
opment of the trunk may be homologized with the specializations 
of the seedling. 

In the later development of the tree the specialized basal metamer 
of the seedling appears somewhat distinct. Often this section is rather 
abruptly thickened in advance of the others, and the enlargement con- 
tinues in many trees to the formation of salient angles or buttresses 
around the base of the trunk. The production of adventitious roots 
from the surface of the enlarged basal section also occurs rather fre- 
quently, especially on young trees that stand in depressions or where 
the soil is deepened by top dressing. 

SPONGY, PERISHABLE SEEDS 


a 


The seeds of the Para rubber tree are very similar to the seeds of 
some of the palms that are specialized for forest conditions. There 
is a thin outer shell of very hard columnar tissue, filled with the rather 
succulent, loose-textured cotyledons, like the endosperm of some of 
the forest palms, as Oenocarpus and Astrocaryum. The soft texture 
of the seeds may not be an advantage in itself, but is doubtless due 
to the fact that water is carried in the tissue, so that the preliminaries 
of germination can go forward without waiting for moisture to be 
absorbed from the outside. Thus it is possible for the seeds of the 
Para rubber tree to germinate without being covered, but merely 
lying among the dead leaves or on the surface of the ground under 
the forest shade. Germination may be deferred to some extent if the 
seeds are kept a little dry, but they die very soon if drying is carried 
too far. 

The hard shell is not ruptured in the germination of the seed, the 
plumule, carried by the growth of the petioles of the cotyledons, emerg- 
ing through a small round hole, a method of germination that is fol- 
lowed in many palms. As soon as the roots are exposed, the seedlings 
can absorb moisture from wet surfaces, though the soft-textured coty- 
ledons, protected by the shell of the seed, may continue to function 
for storing and equalizing the supply of water until the roots have 
penetrated to permanent moisture. Having made its contacts with 
the soil, the Para rubber seedling wastes no time forming leaves near 
the ground, but sends up a smooth, slender, green stem, sometimes a 
foot long before producing any leaves. 


LEAVES OF SEEDLINGS DELICATE 


The delicate texture of the leaves of the seedlings is another forest 
adaptation that seems to be definitely established in the Para rubber 


396 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


tree. The seedling leaves are much thinner than those of adult trees, 
and apparently much more susceptible to injury from exposure to 
adverse conditions. The change in texture from the thin seedling 
leaves to the thicker and firmer adult leaves occurs much earlier in 
some trees than in others, a difference that may be of value in develop- 
ing resistant varieties. 

Where soil conditions are perfect, seedling plants may tolerate full 
exposure, but in heavier soils the seedlings are more susceptible to in- 
jury from direct sunlight. Under the equable forest conditions the 
seedlings have a persistent vitality that probably allows them to 
survive for many years in places that are too dark or too unfavorable 
in other ways to permit normal growth. Plants abandoned in old 
seed beds, after being stunted for 2 or 3 years, have been able to re- 
cover the vigor of normal plants. The tolerance of shade conditions 
shows the extent of forest adaptation, which also may be inferred 
from the absence of surface protection by hairs or bud scales as in 
Castilla, and from the presence of special openings or water pores in 
the lower surface of the leaves, as described by Bobilioff. 


A GROWTH DISORDER IN SEEDLINGS OF PARA RUBBER 


A growth disorder often affecting large proportions of the seedlings 
of the Para rubber tree is worthy of careful study and comparison 
with analogous disorders of other plants, in the interest of better 
understanding of habits of growth and cultural requirements during 
the seedling and juvenile stages. Since the disorder is most severe 
and striking in the young seedlings, much of the injury has been 
avoided by the simple expedient of discarding all the stunted or dis- 
torted individuals in the nursery stocks, under the usual precaution 
that only normal, vigorous trees are to be set in the plantations. Even 
among normal rubber trees, those that pass muster in transplanting 
and make satisfactory growth in the plantations, an enormous di- 
versity is found—greater than in other tree crops. 

The trees in the rubber plantations are found to differ not only in 
the stature and proportions of the trunks, leaves, floral characters, and 
seeds, but also in the bark texture and in the latex tubes, which more 
definitely affect the yields of rubber. The surface of the bark may be 
smooth or finely wrinkled like a beech tree, or rough and remose like 
an elm or an oak, while the structure may be uniform, soft and cheesy, 
or brittle and gritty with stone cells. In experiments where records 
of individual trees are carried through long periods some trees are 
found to be yielding scarcely any rubber, and others only small 
amounts, while a few individuals are far above the general average, 
so that 75 percent of the rubber is produced by 15 to 25 percent of the 
trees. Budding from high-yielding trees raises the average, although 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 397 


the individual yields still vary widely on account of diversity of the 
stocks. 

The multifarious individual diversities shown in these disorders 
are of potential interest and significance in relation to heredity and 
evolution, in showing that great numbers of different patterns of di- 
vergence from normal heredity are set up and consistently followed 
for weeks, months, or years in the development of the individual 
plants. These individual patterns are often so completely different in 
closely contiguous plants as to forbid any assumption that different 
conditions of growth explain the variations. The effects of local 
conditions or injuries may be seen as inducing the general instability 
in the expression of the hereditary characters that seems also to occur 
in some of the deficiency diseases, giving rise to extremely varied 
symptoms. 

DIVERSITY IN ABNORMAL PLANTS 


In addition to the variants that grow with nearly normal vigor, 
there are great numbers of seedlings that must be reckoned as defi- 
nitely abnormal. Many are practically leafless, or with leaves so pale, 
dwarfed, and distorted that the plants are able to survive only while 
protected in the seed beds. 

* Many illustrations would be required to show the range of diversities 
in the various characters, but the three given in plates 9 and 10 il- 
lustrate abnormally narrow leaves of different forms. A rather ex- 
treme form is shown at the right of plate 9, with the primary veins 
much closer and more numerous than those of normal pinnae shown 
at the left in plate 10. The narrow, tapering, erect pinnae at the right 
of plate 10 have little resemblance to the long, drooping pinnae of 
plate 9. Many variants have still narrower pinnae, with the margins 
notched to the midrib, while others have curved or twisted pinnae, or 
funnel-shapel “ascidia.” The series of foliar aberrations is compara- 
ble to that of the familiar “crotons” or codiaeums, which also belong 
to the spurge family. Pinnae of normal form are only 2 or 3 times 
as long as wide, while some of the abnormal pinnae are 10 to 20 times 
as long as wide. Some abnormal plants have the stalks of the pinnae 
longer than usual, or the stalks may be very short and grown to- 
gether, so that the pinnae do not separate. Some leaves exhibit super- 
numerary pinnae. 


RECOVERY OF NORMAL LEAF FORMS 


A notable feature of these abnormal rubber seedlings is that sudden 
and striking changes toward more normal leaf patterns and growth 
behavior are possible, as shown in plate 9. A plant with only narrow, 
slender leaves develops a new cluster with its leaves of normal, or 
nearly normal, proportions. This ability to recover shows that the 


398 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


pattern of normal growth has not been lost, but only suppressed during 
the stage of abnormality, as in growth disorders that are caused by 
feeding punctures of plant lice, mealybugs, or leafhoppers, presum- 
ably as effects of salivary secretions of the insects, without virus in- 
fection, so that normal growth is resumed upon removal of the insects. 
Such disorders are known in cotton and many other plants, but these 
malformations are relatively uniform in each disorder, with no such 
individual diversity as in the disordered rubber seedlings. Marked 
diversity with potential recovery is a distinctive feature of the growth 
disorder of the Para rubber seedlings, and the interest of this combi- 
nation is not lessened by ascribing the abnormalities of the rubber 
seedlings to mites or “red spiders,” as reported from the Dutch Indies. 


A MATURE TREE WITH NARROW LEAVES 


That some of the marked variations might survive and reach ma- 
turity is suggested by the discovery of a mature, narrow-leaved tree 
in a neglected planting of Para rubber at Bayeux, Haiti in 1925. 
Leaves and flowers of this tree are shown in natural size in plate 10, 
in comparison with those of a normal broadleaf tree in the same 
planting. The entire tree was narrow-leaved like the branches that 
were photographed. One branch had a fully developed fruit. Such, 
an aberrant tree in ordinary practice would be left in a seed bed instead 
of being set in a field planting, but may have grown in this instance 
from a volunteer seedling. Taken by itself such a tree might be re- 
corded as an outstanding mutation, but doubtless should be considered 
against the background of wide diversity PPP pe as a growth 
disorder. 


THE PARA RUBBER TREE AS A HYBRID STOCK 


This variability of the cultivated rubber tree may be connected with 
the biological status of the wild stock in South America. Because of 
the geographic position of the species in the lower Amazon valley and 
the adaptation of the seeds for floating, unusual conditions for hybrid- 
ization are afforded, not as a rare contingency, but as a frequent occur- 
rence. Swollen currents from the upper river often reverse the flow 
of the lower tributaries, so that floating seeds may be stranded far 
from the main stream. Thus the stock of Siphonia over a wide area 
of the lower valley must have remained continually accessible to cross- 
ing with the several up-river species. Hybridizing as a preliminary 
to selection has been accomplished in nature. 


RUBBER IN A DESERT SHRUB 


The third place in rubber history must be accorded to the guayule 
shrub, Parihenium argentatum, a native of windswept desert table- 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 399 


lands in northeastern Mexico and the adjacent Big Bend area of west- 
ern Texas. Greater contrasts than actually exist between this rubber 
shrub of the open deserts and the rubber trees of the tropical forests 
would be difficult to imagine. The only resemblance lies in the 
presence of rubber, and even in this feature there is no similarity, since 
guayule does not have latex, but forms its rubber in separate cells of 
the bark. 

Guayule is one of many low, compact, woody shrubs with small gray- 
ish leaves, forming one of the principal types of desert vegetation, as 
appropriate under the desert conditions as are the tall, spreading trees 
to the conditions of tropical forests. Hundreds of similar grayish 
shrubs have developed in desert areas in different parts of the world, 
alike in general form and appearance, but showing unlimited diversi- 
ties in structural features and derived from many different families 
of plants. Guayule stands apart from other rubber plants in its rela- 
tionships as a member of the thistle family, not of the lettuce or chic- 
ory family, which also have rubber but in the form of latex. The dis- 
covery of rubber in guayule doubtless was made long ago, since the 
natives of northern Mexico relied on guayule rubber for making the 
rubber balls used in traditional games and ceremonies. The natives 
extracted the rubber by chewing the guayule bark. The presence of 
guayule in Texas was learned from finding balls of rubber as obstruc- 
tions in the stomachs of range cattle that had died suddenly. 

Little has come to light regarding the early development of a guay- 
ule industry, first as an export trade that had reached a practical scale 
before 1902 preceding the development and use of machinery for ex- 
tracting guayule rubber in Mexico, and later in western Texas, at 
Marathon. The photograph reproduced in plate 13 shows a quantity 
of baled guayule in a storage yard at San Luis Potosi, in June 1902. 

No other experimental undertaking by private interests in the field 
of applied botany has been carried so far. With the specialized meth- 
ods and machinery it appeared that costs of production might be 
brought down to 20 cents or less per pound, in the period before the 
price of plantation rubber declined to that level. Even with Para rub- 
ber at 15 cents or less, the demand for guayule as a compounding in- 
gredient provided a market for the limited quantity that was obtain- 
able. A limiting factor in California was the advance of land values 
to a point too high for the development of a large guayule industry. 
In Texas, where large areas of low-priced land were available, guayule 
proved to be susceptible to the root-rot disease, caused by a fungus that 
lives in the soil and is often destructive to cotton and other crops. 
The factory at Marathon closed in 1926, but was reported in November 
1943 as opened for emergency production, using the wild guayule in 
the Big Bend district. 


400 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


DEVELOPING A GUAYULE INDUSTRY 


In a few years it was plain that the natural supplies of guayule 
were becoming inadequate, and measures for maintaining the indus- 
try began to be considered. Large areas of desert land were acquired 
by some of the rubber companies, and various expedients tested, such 
as protecting young plants and scattering seeds in places that seemed 
most favorable, but with little result. Cultural experiments also were 
undertaken in Mexico and later transferred to southern California, 
near San Diego, in the period of unrest following the revolution of 
1906. The results appeared promising, and in the course of about 30 
years the work was carried through the stages of selecting and testing 
many superior varieties, and of developing highly mechanized equip- 
ment for large-scale production and extraction. The proportion of 
rubber in the better strains of guayule is higher than has been deter- 
mined in any other plant, approaching 20 percent. 

Plantings of guayule in the vicinity of Escondido, northeast of San 
Diego, were increased to about 400 acres, and later, near Tucson, Ariz., 
plantings were expanded to a scale of thousands of acres. There, 
however, conditions proved less favorable for the growth of the 
plants than had been expected, and the undertaking was transferred to 
the Salinas Valley, Calif., in the vicinity of Monterey. There a fac- 
tory large enough to extract the rubber from several thousand acres 
of guayule was built and operated. Grinding, retting, and vacuum 
treatments are necessary, the last to waterlog the wood particles and 
allow all the rubber to float, which completes the separation. The 
expenditures for land, research, and equipment of the three large-scale 
experiments with guayule were credibly reported as approaching 
$2,000,000. 


EFFECT OF RIDLEY’S DISCOVERY ON GUAYULE AND CASTILLA 


To infer from the history of guayule that the undertaking was de- 
fective or ill-advised would be unfair. The planting of guayule in 
northern Mexico was projected in the same period as the planting of 
Castilla in southern Mexico, and either or both of these undertakings 
might have returned good profits if rubber had not declined below 
a dollar or even 50 cents a pound. Ridley’s discovery in the Orient 
of a continuous method of extracting rubber from the Para rubber 
trees remained, as we have seen, practically unknown and unexplained 
for many years, even after it was being utilized on an extensive scale. 
The Ridley method was possible because the Para rubber tree was 
equipped with a system of connected latex tubes, and because large 
supplies of cheap and skillful labor were available in the East 
Indies. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 401 


Nobody could know beforehand how soon the Para rubber of the 
East Indian plantations would come, like the cotton of our Southern 
States, into speculative markets where prices would be forced down far 
below the costs of production by a normal farming population, to 12 
cents, 10 cents, or 5 cents. The rapid advance to large-scale pro- 
duction of rubber in Malaya had the effect in a few years of pre- 
empting the field and placing commercial handicaps on any alterna- 
tive developments. Every invention or improvement runs the risk 
of being blanketed or outrun by some competing improvement, more 
effective or more attractive. The chance of such a discovery and de- 
velopment as took place with the Para rubber in the East Indies must 
be considered very small, but it did actually occur, with the effect of 
reducing the Castilla and guayule projects to the status of nearly 
complete failures, as long as rubber could be had in unlimited quan- 
tities from the East Indies. 


POSSIBILITY OF APPLYING GUAYULE EXTRACTION METHODS TO CASTILLA 


A possibility recognized in recent years is that the mechanical 
methods of extraction developed through the long experience with 
guayule may be adapted to the extraction of rubber from the bark of 
the Castilla tree. An observation was made in Haiti in 1930, reported 
in 1987 and in 1948, of the finding of good-quality rubber in decaying 
Castilla bark, instead of merely a black pasty residue left by the latex 
in the dead bark, ‘as previously observed and ascribed to the action 
of the oxidizing enzyme. This internal coagulation of the latex means 
that the rubber of Castilla is brought within the possibility of 
mechanical extraction by grinding the bark and separating the rub- 
ber, as practiced with guayule. Such an approach to mechanical ex- 
traction is entirely different from attempting to draw out or to squeeze 
out the latex, or to extract the rubber by solvents. The means of 
coagulating the rubber in the Castilla latex is a simple heat treatment 
to destroy the oxidizing enzyme, only moderate temperatures below 
the boiling point being required. 

Mechanical extraction of Castilla rubber, if a feasible process were 
worked out, would open the way to a system of rubber production 
requiring much less labor than for tapping and collecting the latex 
in plantations of the Para rubber tree. The reason why a mechanical 
system is less applicable to the Para rubber tree is that the latex layer 
of the bark is only a few millimeters thick, while that of Castilla 
attains a centimeter or more in thickness, Only a small proportion 
of the rubber material in the latex tubes of Castilla trees has been 
extracted by any of the methods of tapping used in the past. 

A popular impression that the latex of Castilla “pours like water 
from a pipe,” and that “the entire content of rubber runs out quickly,” 


402 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


is without foundation. The latex tubes are only slightly compressed 
by the release of the bark pressure and are still full of latex, which 
remains in the bark and is lost. The proportion of rubber to bark 
tissue in Castilla is doubtless much lower than in guayule, since the 
Castilla bark is woody and fibrous, but with the rubber coagulated in 
tough elastic strands, the extraction process may be much simpler. 
Guayule must be ground very fine, to the point of breaking down 
individual cells, in order to release the rubber material. 

Several cultural advantages of Castilla are obvious. The seedlings 
and young plants are hardier than those of the Para rubber tree, in 
the sense of being adapted to a much wider range of adverse con- 
ditions. The young trees develop and reproduce more rapidly, and 
also propagate readily from large cuttings of the vegetative branches. 
Thus it may be hoped that the renewal of interest in Castilla and 
guayule during the present wartime emergency will carry through to 
an effective determination of production possiblities. 

Not only the Castilla rubber tree, but other latex trees with similar 
tapping problems, such as Ficus elastica, chicle, and balata, are of 
interest from the standpoint of mechanical extraction. It is not 
unthinkable that trees adapted to mechanical extraction eventually 
might replace the Para rubber and lend a wider significance to the 
work done on guayule. A man of great energy, acute intelligence, and 
constructive engineering ability, the late George H. Carnahan, presi- 
dent for many years of the Inter-Continental Rubber Company, was 
largely responsible for the remarkably persistent and effective in- 
vestigation of the cultural and mechanical problems. Unlike many 
private undertakings in the scientific field, detailed accounts of var- 
ious stages of progress in the guayule undertaking were published. 
Carnahan undoubtedly should rank with Edison, Ridley, Wickham, 
Goodyear, Faraday, and La Condamine among eminent names in 
rubber. 

RUBBER IN DESERT MILKWEEDS 


A specialized milkweed, Asclepias subulata, adapted to extreme con- 
ditions in the open deserts of southern California and Arizona, was 
studied for several years from the standpoint of utilization as a field 
crop, and a report was published in 1935. The rubber-bearing stems 
are simple and straight like grass stalks, forming upright tufts 3 or 
4 feet tall. The leaves are only rudimentary, hardly wider than pine 
needles, and soon fall off. The upper figure of plate 14 shows the 
habit of the wild plants growing in a cactus desert near Superior, 
Ariz. The plants grow readily from seeds and form abundant shoots 
from rootstocks creeping below the surface of the soil, as shown in 
natural size in the left-hand lower figure of plate 14. The right-hand 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 403 


lower figure shows a planted field with the milkweed behaving like 
a grass crop, from which successive cuttings could be made. 

The rubber content ranged usually from 2 to 5 percent in the wild 
plants, in exceptional cases reaching 6 percent. The stems have a 
rather heavy coating of wax and a layer of rather strong bast fibers, 
to be considered as byproducts; also, the floss from the seeds of milk- 
weeds is reported as being of industrial value. A general difficulty is 
that the leaves are difficult to harvest, as in the case of the goldenrods 
already mentioned. Another desert milkweed, Asclepias erosa, with 
very large leaves, was also investigated, as reported in 1938. The 
leaves were found to contain about 90 percent of the rubber, and the 
rubber content of the leaves was definitely higher than that of the 
stems of A. swbulata, with a mean of 50 determinations showing more 
than 8 percent and a maximum of 13 percent. Recent observations 
by Dr. Walter T. Swingle indicate that this species may be adapted 
to a wider range of conditions than S. subulata, and may be better 
suited to regular cultivation. 


CRYPTOSTEGIA AS A SOIL COVER 


An incident that occurred during rubber experiments in Haiti 
showed an unexpected cultural relation between two types of rubber- 
bearing plants, the Para rubber tree and Cryptostegia grandiflora, a 
woody trailing vine of the dogbane family, native in Madagascar. The 
latex of Cryptostegia yields rubber of good quality that was formerly 
exported from Madagascar. It is one of the plants that was tested 
by Edison in Florida and is now being tested on a large scale in Haiti 
and in Mexico as an emergency rubber resource. 

A casual planting of Cryptostegia near Port-au-Prince was made 
in a small seed bed previously used for Para rubber, but from which 
all the Para seedlings had been removed except a few stunted, leafless, 
and moribund survivors, overlooked or disregarded when the Crypto- 
stegia seeds were planted. A vigorous growth of Cryptostegia soon 
covered the ground, so that the stunted Para rubber seedlings were 
concealed and forgotten. It was a surprise to find a few months later 
that two plants of the Para rubber, instead of being finally smothered 
and suppressed by the Cryptostegia, were making vigorous growth, 
with normal, full-sized leaves. It was plain that the Cryptostegia, 
instead of competing with the Para rubber, had served to advantage 
as a soil cover or nurse crop for the seedlings of the Para rubber. 

As the planting was done in a heavy but very shallow soil, a con- 
dition definitely unfavorable for open planting of young Para rubber 
trees, it would have been impossible for these depauperate seedlings 
to have recovered and grown vigorously if the Cryptostegia had not 
been planted. This favorable reaction seems worthy of further study 


404 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


to determine the extent of the advantage and the range of conditions 
under which Cryptostegia might contribute in establishing planta- 
tions of the Para rubber or other useful trees. The Cryptostegia rub- 
ber might become a byproduct if suitable methods of extraction could 
be developed. Cryptostegia is not a shade plant and would not be 
expected to form a continuous canopy of foliage. The use of cover 
crops in the East Indian rubber plantations had become a general 
practice in recent years, showing that a very dense shade is not 
formed. 


THE AFRICAN RUBBER TREE IN SHELTER BELTS 


Another member of the dogbane family, the African rubber tree 
Funtumia elastica, may serve cultural purposes quite distinct from 
those served by Oryptostegia. Shelter belts are often needed in 
tropical cultures, not only as soil covers and windbreaks, but also for 
excluding other vegetation. Barriers against grass or other weeds 
may be very important for fire protection or for other reasons. The 
behavior of Funtuméa in Haiti and in Florida shows several adaptive 
characters that may make it useful for planting with other trees. 
One of these characters is the formation of a close, continuous leaf 
crown or canopy of foliage which does not admit enough sunlight 
to enable plants to grow beneath it, so that grass and weeds are 
excluded. Projects for reforestation with rubber trees or establishing 
rubber reserves may be assisted by using borders or barriers of 
Funtumia. Mechanical extraction of the rubber from the bark is 
likely to prove practicable, as with Castilla, if /untwmia should be 
grown in sufficient quantities for such a process to be developed. 


A HARDY GUTTA-PERCHA TREE 


A hardy tree from central China, Hucommia ulmoides, has been 
studied in several European countries as a potential source of rubber 
and has been found to thrive in numerous localities in the United 
States from Massachusetts to California. No lack of hardiness is 
indicated, but the sexes are on separate trees and relatively few 
cases of seed production have been reported. At Lanham, Md., seeds 
are produced in normal seasons, but all the flowers may be killed 
by late frosts. ‘The seeds are winged and are widely disseminated, 
but only a few self-sown plants have appeared. Only one volunteer 
tree has grown well—this in an open place. Tolerance of shade is 
not indicated. 

Latex tubes are not found in Z'ucommia, but a rubberlike substance 
is formed in small chambers of the bark, leaves, and seed capsules, 
a substance that dissolves and precipitates with the same chemical 
reagents that are used with rubber and gutta-percha. The Eucommia 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 405 


gum is like gutta-percha in being tough rather than elastic; it is not 
at all pasty or sticky, as are many of the near-rubbers. 

A peculiar feature of the Hucommia gum is that it does not become 
plastic or adhesive when heat up to the boiling point of water is 
applied. Though such a property of resistance to heat is of special 
value in some of the uses of rubber, the lack of cohesion among the 
rubber particles has prevented the application to Hucommia of the 
processes of mechanical extraction that have been developed for 
guayule. Extraction with solvents is possible, and samples obtained 
in this manner leave no doubt that the material is firm, tough, and 
flexible, but costs may be prohibitive unless special uses are discovered. 


EUCOMMIA, A TREE THAT NEVER BLOSSOMS 


The Hucommia tree has features of such botanical interest as to 
be valuable for purposes of instruction in any institution where 
botany is taught. All universities or other schools that have tree 
collections, or even “garden and grounds,” should have H’ucomma 
branches as “laboratory material.” The period of reproduction is 
in the early spring, when floral botany usually receives attention. 
The tree is vigorous and handsome, the foilage much resembling that 
of an elm, as the specific name indicates. 

The educational function that Hucommia may serve most effectively 
is to furnish background for all the courses of study that relate to the 
development of special floral envelopes in the various families of 
higher plants, the “flowering plants,” as they are usually called. The 
lack of floral specialization in E'ucommia is most complete and re- 
markable; there are no organs that can be interpreted as calyx or 
corolla, or even as a trace or indication that such organs existed pre- 
viously and have been suppressed. A more primitive state or base 
line of floral development is hardly to be imagined. 

The stamens and pistils, shown in natural size in plate 15, are the 
only floral organs, and these are green like the leaves, so that nothing 
in the nature of a blossom in the popular sense is ever to be seen. An 
alder or a pussy willow has a much more striking “bloom.” Not only 
are floral envelopes lacking in Hucommia, but there are no subtending 
bracts or other indications that a specialized inflorescence ever 
existed. The stamens and pistils are mounted directly on simple re- 
ceptacles rising from the axils of the bud scales and the foliage leaves, 
and from the axils of intermediate leaf forms, between the bud scales 
and the foliage leaves. Some of these are slender and weak, not de- 
veloping éhlorophiyil and soon withering, while others persist through 
the season as undersized leaves. 

At Lanham, Md., the buds were noted as completely dormant on 
March 9, 1936, after protracted cold weather, but as beginning to sep- 

5667 


406 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


arate and show green color on March 18, when Corylus flowers were 
well advanced, with many empty stamens. The H'ucommia stamens 
are deep green and notably accrescent, becoming only slightly yellow- 
ish at maturity. A length of 8 to 10 mm. is attained, with the fila- 
ments 1 to 2 mm. long, the receptacle 2 to 4 mm. The number of 
stamens on one receptacle varies from 3 to 10, usually 6, 7, or 8, with 
6 as the modal number. 

The pistils and fruits are green, those that are not fertilized, or at 
ieast not fertile, often persisting with the fertile fruits, not growing 
as large but retaining a deeper green color. The fertile fruits exceed 
4cm. in length, the infertile 3 cm. The large, straight embryo is en- 
closed in a hard shell near the middle of the fruit, shown in plate 15. 
Two collateral ovules develop in the unfertilized fruits to a length of 
about 3 mm., noted as still living on July 23, when the fertile fruits 
were nearly full size but immature. The seeds ripen in September 
or October, but do not fall until a rather severe frost has occurred— 
in Maryland about the middle of November. The female tree may 
defoliate 2 or 3 weeks in advance of the male, while the fruits are 
still in place. 

The Hucommia tree is now placed by botanists as a monotypic 
family Eucommiaceae, apart from any other group, after being as- 
signed provisionally to several other families, such as Magnoliaceae, 
Trochodendraceae, and Hamamelidaceae. The last group, the witch- 
hazel family, is considered as remotely related. 


EUCOMMIA SUPPRESSES ALL TERMINAL BUDS 


Another special character of E'ucommia, adding to the educational 
interest of the tree, is the complete suppression of terminal buds. 
Each branch or twig of “ucommia ends with an internode that de- 
velops only a rudimentary bud, concealed in a minute pit in the leaf 
base. In the absence of a bud, the petiole of the last leaf continues 
in the direction of the branch, instead of being pushed aside to a 
somewhat oblique position by the enlargement of an axillary bud, as 
happens with all the preceding leaves; also, the petiole of the last 
leaf of a shoot or twig of H'ucommia is usually longer than that of 
the adjacent leaves. Such an elongate petiole marked at the base by 
the pit enclosing the rudimentary bud is shown in natural size in 
plate 15, extending obliquely at the right of the lower figure. 

The term “sympodial” might be applied to the branching habit of 
Eucommia, as to plants where terminal buds are replaced by flowers 
or by tendrils, but with E'ucommia there is no replacement, the apical 
internode being merely deprived of its bud and then appearing as a 
sterile lateral stub after a new shoot has grown from the subterminal 
bud. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 407 


The suppression of its terminal buds places Zucommia in complete 
contrast with the tropical rubber trees, where specialization is ac- 
complished very largely by suppression of all the lateral buds in the 
early stages of growth. The simple primary trunk of the Para rub- 
ber tree, without any twigs or scars of branches, represents a complete 
suppression of the vegetative buds, like the trunk of a palm, with only 
the terminal bud serving for vegetative growth. 


THE BALATA TREE 


The balata tree of South America, first noted in French Guiana by 
Aublet in 1775, apparently extends through several neighboring coun- 
tries. It is one of the near-rubbers that seems worthy of being utilized 
on a much larger scale. The balata gum is similar to gutta-percha, 
and although not elastic like rubber, is flexible and tough, even when 
rolled very thin. In the opinion of manufacturers experienced in the 
use of both gums, balata would have been valued as highly as gutta- 
percha if regular supplies had been available. Although the balata 
gum has had commercial status for nearly a century, the tree remains 
little known, with even its botanical identity still in question. Leaves 
and fruits of balata from an experiment at Bayeux, Haiti, are shown 
in natural size in plate 16. The stock may have come from British 
Guiana. The growth of balata has been reported as very slow, which 
doubtless is true of the forest trees, but the growth in Haiti was com- 
parable with that of the rubber trees. 

The name given by Aublet was Achras balata, which Gaertner 
placed as Mimusops balata in 1807, a designation that has been widely 
used, A different name, /anilkara bidentata, appears in Record’s new 
work on “Timbers of the New World,” adopted from writers who in- 
ferred that Aublet’s balata was not a native tree in French Guiana, but 
had been introduced from Mauritius. Such an introduction is not 
implied in Aublets statement, which merely associates the Guiana 
balata with a tree previously seen in Mauritius, where Aublet had spent 
several years. Two localities in Mauritius were noted, but no Guiana 
locality, which may simply mean that the tree was well known at 
Cayenne. Aublet’s description is brief, but parallel to those of the 
sapote and the sapodilla, as species of Achras. 

The similarity of the leaves and flowers of balata in plate 16 with 
those of the sapodilla in plate 18 leaves little doubt that the trees are 
closely related. They belong to the sapota family, a remarkable group 
of tropical trees, some of them attaining great size, producing edible 
fruits, useful latexes, and valuable woods, very heavy, hard, and dura- 
ble. Some of the famous South American “milk trees,” those known 
as massaranduba, also are included ; the latex is potable and is reported 
by many travelers as pleasant and wholesome. The lucuma of Peru, 


408 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the sapote of Mexico, the star apple of the West Indies, and the shea- 
butter tree of Africa are members of the same family, as are also the 
original gutta-percha trees of the East Indies, Palaquiwm, Isonandra 
or Dichopsis. 

The balata gum has often been described as intermediate between 
rubber and gutta-percha. Gutta-percha has been replaced to a great 
extent by vulcanized rubber, and now by plastics, but the need for 
balata may be expected to continue. Insulating of the early Atlantic 
cables was the culminating service of gutta-percha, largely exhausting 
the natural resources of that gum. Mechanical extraction of gutta- 
percha from the leaves of cultivated trees is a modern development in 
the Dutch colonies, and balata may be obtainable either in that manner, 
or by extraction from the bark, as practiced with guayule and proposed 
for Castilla. The close-grained, durable woods obtainable from mem- 
bers of this family may feature as byproducts in considering the 
cultural problems. 


THE SAPODILLA, OR CHEWING-GUM TREE 


One of the near-rubber trees that doubtless will become better ap- 
preciated in the future is sapodilla, well known in the West Indies and 
in southern Florida for its delicious fruit. The same tree, named by 
Linnaeus Achras zapota, grows extensively in the forests of southern 
Mexico and Guatemala, where most of our chicle or chewing gum has 
been obtained, though in recent years substitutes have been sought in 
many countries and also in laboratories. 

The chicle trees in the forests grow so slowly that setting out plan- 
tations for the sake of the gum has scarcely been thought of, but other 
elements of interest should not be overlooked in southern Florida or 
in other tropical countries. The fruits are delicious and wholesome, 
the trees are magnificient, and the wood is of fine texture, rich color, 
and amazing durability. The ancient Mayas used carved timbers of 
yas, as they called it, as lintels over the doorways of their temples, 
and some of these remain in place after many centuries, even in a 
tropical climate. The abundance of chicle and breadnut trees (Brosi- 
mum alicastrum) in the forests that now cover the ruins of the ancient 
Maya cities suggests that the edible fruits of these trees may have 
contributed to the support of the former population, supplementing 
field crops of maize, beans, yautias, and sweetpotatoes. 

When it grows in open places the sapodilla is a stately tree with 
densely tufted, deep green leaves, firm-textured and persistent on all 
the branches, even near the ground. The tree shown in plate 17, the 
largest known in Florida, grew at Fort Myers in the main street of 
the town, but was destroyed in a building project of the boom period. 
The leaves, flowers, and immature fruits of the sapodilla are shown 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 409 


in natural size in plate 18. The shape of the fruits varies from oval 
to broadly rounded, or the base may be flattened like a tomato. The 
fruit has a russet surface, with white or slightly pinkish flesh, much 
resembling a high-grade pear in color, taste, and texture, even to the 
presence of stone cells. The texture may be too delicate for commer- 
cial handling in storage and shipment, but for home use in southern 
Florida and in other tropical countries, the sapodilla is one of the 
finest fruit trees. 


OUR HOUSEHOLD “RUBBER PLANT” 


One of the tropical rubber trees is well known in Europe and the 
United States as an ornamental. It is the familiar “rubber plant” 
of our livingrooms, conservatories, and hotel lobbies, with its bur- 
nished emerald leaves. The house plants are grown from cuttings of 
a large fig tree, Ficus elastica, frequently referred to as the Assam rub- 
ber tree from its original habitat in the forests of northern India. 

Growing in an open place, the tree has a spreading habit, with the 
trunk and lower branches supported by many buttress roots, like the 
banyan fig of India. A thriving tree of Ficus elastica in Florida is 
shown in plate 19. The leaves on young and thrifty trees are 6 to 12 
inches long, like those of our house-plant cuttings, while the leaves of 
fruiting branches are only 8 to 4 inches long, as shown in natural size 
in plate 20, with the small cylindrical figs. 

Under natural conditions in deep forests the tree is said to be “us- 
ually epiphytic, throwing down numerous aerial roots from the 
branches.” As the first commercial rubber tree to be discovered in 
the East Indies, it was given much attention during a period of 
years. The trees in the forests were exploited and mostly extermi- 
nated, but large plantings were reported in several districts. The 
results were reported favorably at first, until the plantations of Para 
rubber brought prices too low. The latex system and the limitations 
of the manual tapping method are similar to those of Castilla, and 
the use of mechanical extraction is an alternative that may be consid- 
ered in the future. 


TWO RUBBERS IN ONE TREE 


The rubber of the Assam fig tree is of uneven quality, often weak 
and sticky in young trees, and sometimes in older trees. Even in rub- 
ber from the same tree perceptible differences may be found. <A large 
tree in Haiti that in a previous year had furnished a sample of good 
rubber happened to be heavily manured from an adjacent barnyard. 
On that side the trunk thickened rapidly, and produced a large, heavy 
branch, out of proportion with the previous development. Only weak 
and sticky rubber was found in the latex of the new growth, but on 


410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the other side of the tree, where the previous tapping had been made, 
the rubber still showed good quality. The contrast of the two sam- 
ples, one elastic and tough, with the surface clean and dry, the other 
weak and sticky, left no doubt that the quality of the rubber material 
formed in the latex could be seriously affected by conditions of 
growth. 


SELECTED LIST OF PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO 
RUBBER OR TO GROWTH DISORDERS OF PLANTS 


(Unless otherwise stated, all papers were written by the present author. Papers 
in this list are usually referred to in the text merely by dates.) 


1900. Rubber cultivation for Porto Rico. U.S. Dep. Agr., Div. Bot. Circ. 28. 
12 pp. 

1901. Agriculture in the tropical islands of the United States. U.S. Dep. Agr. 
Yearbook for 1901, pp. 349-368. 

1903a. The culture of the Central American rubber tree. U.S. Dep. Agr., Bur. 
Plant Ind. Bull. 49. 86 pp. 

1903b. Four new species of the Central American rubber tree. Science, vol. 18 
pp. 436-439. 

1909. Vegetation affected by agriculture in Central America. U.S. Dep. Agr., 
Bur. Plant Ind. Bull. 145. 30 pp. 

1910. A preliminary treatment of the genus Castilla, by H. Pittier. U.S. Nat. 
Mus., Contr. U. 8. Nat. Herbarium, vol. 18, pp. 247-279, pls. 22-42. 

191la. Dimorphic branches in tropical crop plants: cotton, coffee, cacao, the 
Central Amercian rubber tree, and the banana. U.S. Dep. Agr., Bur. 
Plant Ind. Bull. 198. 64 pp. 

1911b. Notes on southern Mexico, by G. N. Collins and C. B. Doyle. Nat. 
Geogr. Mag., vol. 22, pp. 301-320. 

1913. Nomenclature of the sapote and the sapodilla, U.S. Nat. Mus., Contr. 
U. 8S. Nat. Herbarium, vol. 16, pp. 277-285. 

1920. A disorder of cotton plantsin China. Journ. Heredity, vol. 11, pp. 99-110. 
Illustr. 

1923a. Malformations of cotton plants in Haiti. Journ. Heredity, vol. 14, 
pp. 323-325. Illustr. 

1923b. Sources of crude rubber. U. 8S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur. Plant 
Ind., for 1922-19238, pp. 28-30. 

1923c. Possibilities of rubber production. U.S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Secretary 
for 1923, p. 51. 

1924a. Acromania, or “crazy top,” a growth disorder of cotton. Journ. Agr. 
Res., vol. 28, pp. 803-827. Illustr. 

1924b. Rubber plants. U. 8. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur. Plant Ind., for 
1923-1924, p. 34. 

1925a. Rubber. U.S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur. Plant Ind., for 1924-1925, 
pp. 21-23. 

1925b. Tropical America adapted to rubber. U.S. Dep. Agr. Off. Rec., vol. 4, 
No. 39, pp. 1-2. 

1926. Para rubber tree is found at Palm Beach. U.S. Dep. Agr. Off. Rec., 
vol. 5, No. 39, pp. 1-2, 8. 

1927. Rubber plants. U. S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur. Plant Ind., for 
1926-1927, pp. 28-29. 


1928a. 


1928b. 


1928c, 


1929a. 


1929b. 


1930a. 


1930b. 


19380c. 


1930d. 


1930e. 


1931. 


1932. 
1933, 


1935a. 


1935b. 


1935c. 
1937. 


1938. 


1941. 


1942. 


1943a. 


1943b. 


NATURAL RUBBER—COOK 411 


Dr. Ridley of Singapore and the beginnings of the rubber industry, by 
D. Fairchild. Journ. Heredity, vol. 19, pp. 193-203. 

Beginnings of rubber culture. Journ. Heredity, vol, 19, pp. 204-215. 

Early days of rubber experiments. A letter from Dr. Ridley pictures 
Singapore of thirty years ago. Journ. Heredity, vol. 19, pp. 485-486. 

Rubber trees thrive in Florida planting. U. S. Dep. Agr. Off. Rec., 
vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 1, 8. 

Rubber plants. U. S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur. Plant Ind., for 
1928-1929, pp. 26-27. 

U. S. hunts a way to produce its own rubber. Washington Daily News, 
January 29. 

Branching habits of the Hevea rubber tree. Science, vol. 71, pp. 386-387. 

Rubber plants. U. S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur. Plant Ind., for 
1929-1930, pp. 31-32. 

Habits of Hevea rubber trees. 1st Inter-American Conf. on Agr., For- 
estry, and Animal Ind., Washington, D. C., Rep. of Delegates, pp. 40-41. 

The debt of agriculture to tropical America. Bull. Pan American Union, 
vol. 64, pp. 874-887. (Reprinted in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. for 
1931, pp. 491-501; also, with title ‘Tropical America’s Agricultural 
Gifts,’”’ in Mid-Pacific Mag., vol. 42, pp. 344-350, 1931.) 

Rubber plants. U.S. Dep. Agr., Rep. of Chief, Bur, Plant Ind., for 
1930-1931, p. 24. 

Study of supply sources of raw rubber. U.S. Daily, vol. 7, p. 874. 

Rubber content of various species of goldenrod, by L. G. Polhamus. 
Journ. Agr. Res., vol. 47, pp. 149-152. 

Hevea rubber trees in Florida. Science, vol. 81, p. 435. 

The desert milkweed (Asclepias subulata) as a possible source of rubber, 
by R. E. Beckett and R. 8S. Stitt, U. S. Dep. Agr. Techn. Bull. 472. 
20 pp. 

The Maya breadnut in southern Florida. Science, vol. 82, pp. 615-616. 

Rubber production from Castilla and Hevea. Science, vol. 85, pp. 
406-407, April 23. 

Rubber content and habits of a second desert milkweed (Asclepias erosa) 
of southern California and Arizona, by R. E. Beckett, R. S. Stitt, and 
E. N. Duncan. U.S. Dep. Agr. Techn. Bull. 604, p. 11. 

Naming the cultivated rubber tree Siphonia Ridleyana. Journ. Washing- 
ton Acad. Sci., vol. 3, pp. 46-65, February 15. 

Methods of splitting Hevea seedlings, by H. F. Loomis. Journ. Agr. 
Res., vol. 65, pp. 97-124. 

More rubber from Castilla. Agriculture in the Americas, January, 
pp. 7-9. Spanish trans., La Hacienda, pp. 297-299, July 1943. 

A summary of the literature of milkweed (Asclepias spp.) and their utili- 
zation, by A. G. Whiting. U.S. Dep. Agr. Bibliogr. Bull. 2, 41 pp. 
Oct. 15. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 1 


CASTILLA RUBBER TREES IN FOREST FORMATION. 


An abandoned Castilla plantation in Panama, with self- 


indicating that self-renewing rubber forests may be established if methods of mechanical extraction of 
the rubber can be devised. 


sown young trees developing as undergrowth, 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 2 


BRANCHING HABITS OF CASTILLA RUBBER TREES. 


The young trees in the foreground have only lateral branches, horizontal or drooping, slender, simple, and 
deciduous. The older tree, fruiting on its lateral branches, also has strong ascending branches, forming 
the permanent divisions of the trunk. Trees of fruiting age have an annual leaf fall at the flowering season, 
but a strong shoot at the left holds its leaves like a young tree. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook 


A CASTILLA TREE WITH SEVERE TAPPING WOUNDsS. 


Four or five tappings are indicated, although many trees do not sury a second or a third tapping. The 
creamy, thick latex of Castilla often fails to flow, but coagulates in the cuts and is gathered as scrap rubber. 
The cuts are made more oblique if a flow of latex is expected. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 4 


YOUNG CASTILLA TREES WITH SPREADING LOWER BRANCHES. 


Upper, a young Castilla plantation in southern Mexico; lower, a close view of a vigorous young tree, one 
of the branches subtended by a broadly cordate leaf borne on the trunk, different from the oblong leaves 
borne along the branch. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook 


SPECIALIZED LEAF FORMS IN CASTILLA RUBBER TREES. 


ung Castilla tree showing three of the specialized leaf forms. The juvenile type is represented by two 
y large, long-stalked leaves; the trunk type by the much shorter and relatively broader leaf subtending 
a branch; the branch type by the short-petioled leaves produced in two ranks along the lateral branches. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 6 


SEEDLING LEAVES OF CASTILLA RUBBER TREES. 


Left, a seedling plant natural size, showing subterranean cotyledons and long epicotyl. Right, above, 
seedling leaves, lower surfaces, the first leaves broadly cordate, the second leaves oblong, with different 
venation; below, two Castilla seedlings in 4-inch pots, showing that first leaves are opposite and have 
rather long petioles. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—-Cook PLATE 7 


Se 


SEEDLINGS AND EARLY STAGES OF THE PARA RUBBER TREE. 


The cotyledons are subterranean and the lower joints of the trunk produce no leaves for a foot or more above 
the ground, where two adjacent joints bear leaves. Larger groups of leaf-bearing trunk sections are formed 
farther up, with leafless groups between. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 8 


FIRST LEAVES OF HEVEA SEEDLINGS. 


Shown in natural size at the stage reached in plate 7 (upper), the lower internodes of the axis not developing 
leaves. The pinnae continue in the drooping position to nearly full size, a habit shared with other plants 
that are specialized to live as undergrowth in tropical forests. The leaves and branches of Hevea are not 
specialized as in Castilla. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 9 


2 


ABNORMAL HEVEA SEEDLINGS WITH NARROW LEAVES. 


A frequent growth disorder, resulting in remarkable diversity of leaf form among the affected plants, most 
of them stunted and smothered in the seed beds, but afew recovering by abrupt transitions toward normal 
leaf forms, as in the figure at the left. Right, an example of extreme attenuation of the leaves, abnormal 
in length and number of veins; natural size, to compare with plate 10 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 10 


LEAVES AND FLOWERS OF NORMAL AND ABNORMAL HEVEA. 


Left, from a normal broad-leaved tree; right, from an abnormal narrow-leaved tree, both natural size. The 
development of a narrow-leaved tree to maturity is relatively rare, but significant in the study of variation. 
The flowers of Hevea are pale creamy yellow with the odor of lilaes, to which the Brazilian name seringa 
or serinqueira may refer. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 11 


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MODIFIED BRANCHING OF HEVEA TREES. 


Left, an old Hevea stump in Haiti sprouting profusely, although uninjured trees produce no branches near 
the ground. The sprouts show the normal habit of intermittent growth with several short stem sections 
forming a ‘‘flush’’ of new leaves, supported by a series of leafless stem sections. Right, a young tree in 
the Panama Canal Zone, 20 months old in April 1925, with scattered branches a few feet from the ground. 


mithsonian Report, 1943. PLATE 12 


METHODS OF TAPPING HEVEA TREES, NATIVE AND IMPROVED. 


Above, tapping with a small ax, the native method in Brazil. The ax wounds do not kill the trees, but the 
bark becomes too rough for more latex to be collected. Photograph from the Amazon Valley, above Para. 
Below, method of tapping developed from Ridley’s discovery at Singapore of repeated paring of the 
same wound. 


Smithsonian Report. 1943. —Cook PLATE 13 


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GUAYULE, A RUBBER-BEARING DESERT SHRUB. 


Upper, bales of guayule at San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 1902, awaiting shipment to Europe. Lower, left, a 
guayule shrub, reduced; right, a basal section, natural size. A low, compact, woody shrub scattered 
through high-altitude desert districts in northern Mexico and in the Big Bend district of western Texas. 
Rubber is extracted by a process of grinding, retting, and flotation. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 14 


A DESERT MILKWEED, ASCLEPIAS SUBULATA, CONTAINING RUBBER. 


Upper, wild plants growing with cacti near Superior, Ariz. Lower, left, rootstocks and upright stems, 
natural size; right, experimental cultivation as a field crop. The stems are straight and slender like grass 
stalks, with minute nonfunctional leaves that soon fall off. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 15 


A HARDY CHINESE TREE, EUCOMMIA ULMOIDES, CONTAINING GUTTA-PERCHA. 


Upper, stamens and pistils, natural size, the stamens grouped on simple receptacles, the pistils solitary in 
axils of bud scales or of foliage leaves, lacking any specialized floral envelope, either calyx or corolla. The 
sexes are Separate and the tree is placed in a family by itself. It looks like an elm, and is hardy throughout 
the United States. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 16 


THE BALATA TREE OF SOUTH AMERICA. 


Leaves and mature fruits, natural size, from a tree at Bayeux, Haiti. The gum is similar to gutta-percha 
tough, but not elastic, and has been exported for many years from South America, though the tree is 
little known. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 17 


A SAPODILLA TREE IN FLORIDA. 


Native in Mexico and Central America, where the latex is the principal source of chewing gum. Planted 
in Florida for its fruits, juicy and delicious like high-grade pears. This tree grew at Fort Myers on the 
principal street but was replaced by a building. The royal palms, possibly 40 years old, may have been 
younger than the sapodilla tree. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook 


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LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND FRUITS OF THE SAPODILLA. 


A flowering branch of the sapodilla tree, natural size, showing the tufted leaves of firm texture, with even 
margins and smooth surfaces, the veins scarcely distinct, the small white flowers, and the russet-hrown 


immature fruits. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 19 


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AN ASSAM RUBBER TREE IN FLORIDA. 


Our familiar household ‘‘rubber plant,’ a species of fig (Ficus elastica) commonly grown from cuttings for 
decorative use. The tree is native in northern India, but thrives in Florida, the spreading limbs supported 


on aerial roots, like the banyan fig of India. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cook PLATE 20 


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FRUITING STAGE OF THE ASSAM FIG TREE. 
Leaves and fruits, natural size, from a large tree at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As with many tropical trees, 
the leaves are much smaller in mature trees than in juvenile stages. These leaves are only 3 to 4i nches 
long, while the tree in plate 19 had leaves nearly a foot long. 


LESSONS FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE 
AMERICAS IN LAND USE? 


By WALTER CLAY LOWDERMILK 
Assistant Chief, Soil Conservation Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture 


[With 4 plates] 


Lands of the Old World bear an indelible record written across land- 
scape after landscape by resident populations. The longer the occu- 
pation, the deeper is the record written and the easier it is to read the 
story of man’s stewardship of the earth, whether it be wasteful ex- 
ploitation or use with conservation of the resource. One finds suc- 
cessful adjustments of populations to the land in remarkable terrac- 
ing and reclamation works, as well as tragedies of land misuse, in gul- 
lied fields and alluvial plains, in rocky hills and mountain slopes 
washed bare of soils, in shifting soils and sands, in silted-up and aban- 
doned irrigation reservoirs and canals, in ruins of great and prosper- 
ous cities and in ruins of olive presses and cisterns in desertlike land- 
scapes. The effects of land use through the centuries are cumulative. 

In the United States of America, we have in a comparatively short 
period written far and wide on the face of our country a story of 
wasteful exploitation and reckless use of abundant natural resources. 
We have grown wealthy by an economy of exploitation. The time 
has come with the occupation of all lands of the earth to change to 
an economy of conservation. It is of timely interest to the New 
World to read the story of land use as it has been written in the lands 
of the Old World, that we may profit by the experience of the past 
in its failures as well as its successes. 

Western civilization had its beginnings in the Near East in the 
alluvial plains of the Nile Valley and of Mesopotamia. Early tillers 
of soil by irrigation and by selection of food plants produced more 
food than they themselves required. Surplus food supplies released 
other members of early societies to engage in useful activities other 
than food production. Division of labor thus began and increased 
the command over nature and progress in civilization. 

+ Reprinted by permission from Proceedings of the Highth American Scientific Congress, 
vol. 5, 1942. 

413 


414 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


From these far-away lands of the Near East, western civilization 
has moved westward, until now its vanguard has reached the gleaming 
billows of the Pacific Ocean that wash the western sands of the Ameri- 
cas. For the first time in the history of the human race there are no 
more continents to discover, to colonize, and to exploit. The fron- 
tiers of new lands are gone forever. The nations of the Americas 
occupy the last frontier of western civilization. 

A survey of land use throughout this westward march of civilization 
discloses successes and failures in the long use of land. The object of 
this survey was to profit by failures and achievements of the Old 
World in our national movement for the conservation of land. This 
survey covered 28,000 miles of overland travel by automobile from 
humid England to the margins of the deserts of Sahara and Arabia. 
Studies were made in consultation with fully a hundred specialists in 
124 areas of special interest within 14 countries and dependencies in 
a period of 15 months of field work. 

No attempt is made in this brief paper to account for the destruction 
or conservation of lands on economic grounds. To profit by the ex- 
perience of the past it is important to know what has happened to the 
land after centuries and thousands of years of use. Complexity of 
causes cannot hide the menace to national welfare in soil erosion and 
the necessity for setting up national objectives to conserve basic re- 
sources of soils and waters in the land. Means of achieving the ob- 
jectives of conservation will vary in accordance with the genius of 
peoples and their institutions. Soil erosion, if not controlled, has 
demonstrated its ability to undermine nations and civilizations re- 
gardless of what may have been the social or economic conditions that 
set it going or stimulated its destructiveness. 

The land of special areas was examined for evidences—in changes 
of the original soil profiles insofar as they could be reconstructed ; 
in the shifting of soils from slopes by erosion; and in the accumulation 
of sediments on valley floors and plains; in the shifting of sand dunes; 
in the cutting out of alluvial plains with deep gullies; in the filling 
cf stream channels with erosional debris producing marshy condi- 
tions; and in ruins of agricultural works for the control and conserva- 
tion of waters for domestic and irrigation use; as well as evidences of 
changes or stability of climate. Furthermore, the fate of the physical 
body of the soil resource was given more attention in the survey than 
problems of fertility maintenance. For if the soil is maintained in 
place, liberty of action in use is assured to succeeding tillers of the 
soil, in applying more or less fertilizer, in growing this or that crop; 
but if the soil itself is destroyed, the present and succeeding genera- 
tions are deprived of their basic heritage. 

Throughout this broad expanse of land it became plain that the fate 
of land under use has been most influenced by slope. The hazard of 


LAND USE—LOWDERMILK 415 


soil erosion is low on flat lands, but it is critical on sloping lands. 
Flat lands have their problems, it is true, in the rise of water tables 
and in the accumulation of salts, but drainage is usually sufficient. 
Other problems occur in the formation of sand dunes, for which 
fixation with vegetation is the solution. But the tiller of soil has met 
his greatest problem throughout the ages in maintaining cultivation 
on sloping lands. We found failures and successes throughout this 
broad expanse of land. 


ANCIENT PHOENICIA AND SLOPE FARMING 


The Near East is believed by archeologists to be the scene of the 
beginnings of agriculture which made the growth of western civiliza- 
tion possible (11).?_ It is probable that irrigated agriculture preceded 
rain agriculture. The flat lands of the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia 
were irrigated before the slopes of ancient Phoenicia were cleared and 
cultivated. It is probable also that it was on the slopes of the orig- 
inally forest-clad mountains of ancient Phoenicia that rain agriculture 
first began, and at the same time the tiller of soil of our western civil- 
ization first encountered the hazards of slope cultivation and of soil 
erosion. It is also probable that the tillers of soil first controlled 
erosion here with rock walls to terrace sloping lands. 

In this connection, we must refer to the remarkable terraces of 
Peru. I am unaware if the age of the terraces of Peru has been de- 
termined. Certainly they were developed by the genius of a resource- 
ful people in great antiquity and independently of the Phoenicians 
in the Near East, for which they deserve equal praise for a marvelous 
achievement. 

About 5,300 years ago, the Phoenicians migrated from the desert 
and settled along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, estab- 
lishing the harbor towns of Tyre and Sidon, Beyrouth and Byblos. 
They found their land mountainous, rising to a crest of 10,000 feet 
and heavily covered with forests, the greatest extent of which were 
the forests of the famous cedars of Lebanon. These forests became 
the timber supply for the treeless alluvial plains of the Nile and of 
Mesopotamia. This conclusion is inferred from inscriptions such as 
one on the Temple of Karnak, Egypt, placed at 2840 B. C., which 
announces the arrival in Egypt of 40 ships laden with timber of the 
cedars of Lebanon (2). Inscriptions found in excavations of Nineveh 
and of ancient Babylon refer to the use of “huge cedars from Mount 
Lebanon” in the construction of buildings (9). 

In this mountainous land rising boldly out of the sea there was little 
flat land along the coast. The growing population doubtless soon 
exceeded the carrying capacity of these restricted flat lands and was 


2 Numbers in parentheses refer to literature cited. 


416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


faced with the alternatives of shipbuilding, trade, founding colonies, 
and the cultivation of slopes. As these slopes were cleared of forests 
and cultivated, they were subject to soil erosion under heavy winter 
rains, then as they would be now. The great area of terrace walls in 
various states of repair indicate that the ancient Phoenician slope 
farmer sought to retard or control erosion with rock walls across the 
slope, 40 or possibly 50 centuries ago. 

The famous forests of the cedars of Lebanon, which are associated 
with the rise of civilization in the alluvial plains of the Near East, 
retreated before the ax and the hoe until today only a few remnants of 
the original forest of about 1,000 square miles are left. The best known 
relic is the Tripoli grove of cedars, consisting of about 400 trees, 
saved from vandalism by a church and from goat grazing by a stone 
wall. (Pl. 1, fig. 1.) Restocking of this grove within the protection 
of a stone wall against grazing signifies that under present climatic 
conditions the forest would spread and grow where soil enough has 
escaped the ravages of erosion. The disappearance of these famous 
forests is symbolic of the decline and deterioration of the resources 
of the country. 

Today one may find on the mountains of ancient Phoenicia bare lime- 
stone slopes strewn with remnants of former terrace walls, showing 
that the battle with soil erosion sometimes was a losing fight (18) ; else- 
where one may find terraces that have been maintained for several 
thousand years. (Pl.1,figs.2 and 3.) Such astounding achievements 
demonstrate that when the physical body of the soil resource is main- 
tained, it may be cultivated and made productive for thousands of 
years. Its yield in crops then depends upon its treatment. 

The cost in human labor to level terrace slopes of 50 to 75 percent as 
were found in Beit-Eddine, Lebanon, works out at modern wage scales 
at 2,000 to 4,000 United States dollars per acre. Such costs are not 
justified when other lands are available; moreover these costs repre- 
sent what may and sometimes must be paid in an economy of survival. 
Such remarkable works demonstrate to what lengths a people will go to 
survive, as well as the necessity of maintaining the soil resources to 
support a population. Such examples warn us to find ways of saving 
good lands before necessity drives a people to such extremes in costs 
of human effort. 


A “HUNDRED DEAD CITIES” 


Syria holds some of the grandest ruins to be found in the ancient 
world, such as Baalbek and Jerash. But to a soil conservationist the 
most striking ruins are found in the graveyard of a “hundred dead 
cities.” (Pl. 2, fig. 3.) An area of about a million acres in North 
Syria lying between Aleppo, Antioch, and Hama exhibits soil erosion 


LAND USE—-LOWDERMILK 417 


at its worst. Here are ruins of villages, market towns resting on the 
skeleton rock of limestone hills, from which 8 to 6 feet of soil have been 
swept off. Evidence of the depth of soil eroded from these slopes is 
found in doorsills of stone houses now 8 to 6 feet above the bare rock. 

Here soil erosion has done its worst and spread a ghastly destruction 
over a formerly prosperous landscape, as judged by the ruins of splen- 
did houses in villages and in cities, such as at El Bare, which we ex- 
amined in the summer of 1939. In reality, these cities are dead, with 
no hope of resurrection; for the basis of their prosperity is gone. 
These cities have not been buried, but have been left high and stark 
by the removal of soil through the irreversible process of erosion. 
The good earth of terra rossa soils is completely gone from the slopes 
except in patches where it is held back by walls of ruined buildings 
or in pockets in the limestone. In these patches a few vines and olive 
trees stand as sad remnants of a former profitable use of land, which 
provided exports of olive oil and wine to Rome during the empire. 
Seminomads now inhabit repaired ruins in a few of the former cities. 

As one travels in the desolation of this man-made desert today, amid 
the barren limestone hills once forested before they were converted to 
cultivated fields, I was moved by continuous astonishment to find ruins 
of dead cities which gave every evidence of former prosperity and 
well-being. (P1.2,fig.1.) While buildings of some cities are tumbled 
amid their masses of overturned blocks, those of other cities stand 
upright, showing facades, towers, arches, and walls of convents and 
cathedrals, as well as details of houses, villas, shops, stores, public baths, 
hotels, and superb tombs such as those at El] Bare. This area was 
flourishing from the third to the seventh century, without sign of 
decadence. The invasion of the Persians in 614 and the Arabs in 630 
decimated the inhabitants, blotted out their culture, destroyed their 
cities, and even the traditions of their agriculture. 

Today, after 13 centuries of neglect, of terraces overrun by herds 
and patch cultivation of grain by seminomadic descendants of the 
invaders, soil erosion has completed the destruction of the good earth 
with a thoroughness that has left this formerly productive land a 
man-made desert, generally void of vegetation, water, and soil. The 
cities could be made habitable again, but they will remain dead for- 
ever, because their soils are gone beyond hope of restoration. Here 
the “unpardonable sin” of land use has been committed. 


THE “PROMISED LAND” OF PALESTINE 


When Moses stood on Mount Nebo and looked across the Jordan to 
the “Promised Land” about 3,000 years ago, he described the land to his 
followers as a “land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that 
spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, 


418 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive, and honey; a land 
wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack 
any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou 
mayest dig brass” (1). The “Promised Land,” as it is today, is a 
sad commentary on man’s stewardship of the earth. 

The “Promised Land” which 3,000 years ago was “flowing with milk 
and honey” has been so devastated by soil erosion that the soils have 
been swept off fully half the area of the hill lands. The soils have 
been washed off the hills into the valleys (pl. 2, fig. 2), where they 
are sorted: the finer particles are swept out in flood waters to change 
the beautiful blue of the Mediterranean to a dirty brown as far as the 
horizon; the coarser particles are spread out on former alluvium where 
they are still cultivated but in a progressively reduced area. Acceler- 
ated run-off from barren slopes continues to cut gullies through the 
alluvial valleys and to carry erosional debris out to choke up the 
channels of streams flowing through the coastal plains. 

In times past, such erosional debris together with sand dunes blown 
in from the coast created marshes in the plains; then malaria came 
in, practically depopulating the lowlands. The hills also have been 
greatly depopulated as shown by the studies of Dr. Guy (5). A survey 
of ancient village sites abandoned and now occupied discloses how the 
hill lands of Palestine have been depopulated since the seventh cen- 
tury. The watershed of Wadi Musrara of 312 square miles draining 
the western slope from Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv was divided into three 
altitudinal zones: (1) the plain, 0-100 meters; (2) the foothills, 100-300 
meters; (3) the hills, 300 meters and over. In the plains outside 
marshy areas, 32 sites are now occupied and 4 abandoned; in the foot- 
hills, 31 occupied and 65 abandoned; and in the hills, 87 occupied and 
127 abandoned. The break-down of ancient terrace walls and the 
erosion of soils to bedrock on the upper slopes is sufficient reason to 
account for the reduction in population. Erosion in the hills as well 
as marshes with malaria in the coastal plain has been sufficient to 
reduce the population of the “Promised Land” to one-third of the 
Roman and Byzantine period. 

Palestine can never be restored to its original condition as the 
“Promised Land”; it can be much improved over its present condition 
as the splendid works of the Jewish colonies on 5 percent of the total 
area have demonstrated, but the lands have been so devastated by 
the irreversible process of soil erosion in the uplands that they can 
never be restored to their original productivity as the “Promised 
Land”—it is too late. This case brings home the tremendous lesson 
that sloping lands may be damaged beyond full restoration; that 
unless suitable measures are taken in time, land resources are reduced 
in the face of increasing populations with their augmented demands. 


LAND USE—LOWDERMILK 419 


The recent movement of Jewish colonization to redeem the wasted 
lands of Palestine is an excellent example of what can be done, but 
at great cost. (Pl. 1, fig. 4.) Works of reclamation of swamps and 
of reforestation of barren rocky slopes cost more than can be justified 
as commercial investments in land. The insidious nature of erosion 
is here made apparent. It reaches a point where the value of the 
lands will not justify their restoration as an investment for profit. 
This work can be justified only on the basis of survival of a people. 
Such expenditures fall into the category of national defense against 
a ruthless invader or destroyer; for land is the basis of life of a 
people. 

ROMAN AFRICA 


North Africa bristles with astounding ruins of opulent and popu- 
lous cities and of thousands of villages and works of the Roman epoch. 
(Pl. 2, figs. 4 and 6.) A century or more after the destruction of 
Carthage by Scipio in 146 B. C. Rome began to colonize North 
Africa and in the course of time established several important and 
stately cities at the sites now known as Timgad, Sbeitla, Tebessa, 
Jemila, El Jem, and Lambesis. These cities were established at cross- 
roads and along the southern edge of the great agricultural region, 
devoted principally to the growing of grain and olives. 

The Roman city of Thydrus, at the present site of El Jem, was 
located in the midst of the great coastal plain of Tunisia. The most 
conspicuous remnant here is the ruin of a great coliseum to seat 
60,000 spectators, which was second in size only to that at Rome. 
(Pl. 2, fig. 5.) Now a wretched village stands on the site of this 
great Roman city. This center was supported by intensive agricul- 
ture of grain fields and olive orchards; now this plain is sparsely 
covered with wild vegetation and isolated groves of olives overrun 
by herds of grazing animals. 

The Roman city of Thamugadi, at the site called Timgad in Al- 
geria, was one of the more famous centers of Roman power and cul- 
ture. It was established by Emperor Trajan about A. D. 100 and was 
laid out in symmetrical pattern, equipped with a magnificent forum 
embellished with statuary and carved porticoes, with a public library, 
with 17 Roman baths adorned with beautiful mosaic floors, with a 
theater to seat some 2,500 and with marble flush latrines. Timgad 
was a stately city supported by extensive grain fields in the valley 
plains and olive orchards on the hills. 

After the weakening of the Roman power by the Vandal invasion 
in A. D. 430 the Berbers captured the city, and after the Arab in- 
vasion of the seventh century it was lost to knowledge for 1,200 years, 
buried by dust, the product of wind erosion. Only a few columns 
and a portion of Trajan’s arch stood above undulating mounds as 


420 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


tombstones to indicate that once a great city was here. There is no 
counterpart today of the magnificence of this ancient city. A 
wretched village of mud-wall houses sheltering a few hundred in- 
habitants is the only descendant of this center of Roman power and 
culture. Water erosion as well as wind erosion has been at work on 
the landscape. Gullies have cut through portions of the city and 
have exposed the aqueduct which supplied the city with water from 
a great spring some 3 miles away. 

Ruins of the land are as impressive as the ruins of cities. The hills 
have been swept bare of soil, a story which may be read throughout 
the region. The original soil mantle is being washed off the slopes, 
often showing that the upper edge of the soil mantle is being grad- 
ually worked down slope by accelerated run-off from the bared up- 
per slopes. Erosional debris has been deposited on the lower slopes 
and valley plain. Torrential storm waters cut great gullies into the 
alluvial plains. Water tables are lowered and rain waters quickly 
flow off the land leaving it dry and thirsty. The effects of desiccation 
of the land are brought about even if rainfall has not diminished. 

Out toward the Sahara, 70 miles south of Tebessa, were found ruins 
of remarkable works for conserving and spreading storm run-off. 
Check dams were constructed to divert storm waters around the slopes 
and to spread them on a series of terraces, dating back to Roman 
or pre-Roman times. Why these terraces were constructed is not yet 
known. At any rate the French Government is rebuilding the works 
and is spreading storm waters out on these terraces to increase forage 
growth for the herds of the Arab nomads. These works of water 
conservation out so near the Sahara Desert might indicate that cli- 
mate has changed or that all good lands were intensively utilized 
during the Roman epoch. All North Africa, as indicated by such a 
vast display of ruins and works in the midst of a sparsely settled 
and depressing land, must have had an agriculture of remarkable 
refinement in measures of soil and water conservation. 

The striking contrast between the prosperous and populous con- 
dition of North Africa in Roman times and present decadence led 
early students to believe that an adverse change of climate was re- 
sponsible for the decline of the granary of Rome. But the researches 
of Gsell (4), Gautier (3) and Leschi (7) discount an adverse change 
in climate since Roman times (6 and 10). The most telling evidence 
of unchanged climate in the past 2,000 years is the successful planta- 
tion of olive groves on the sites of ruins of Roman stone olive presses. 
An experimental grove planted at Timgad by Director Godet demon- 
strates that olive orchards would thrive today where soil still remains 
on slopes. The great plantation of more than 150,000 acres in the 
vicinity of Sfax, Tunisia, which now supports thriving enterprises at 


LAND USE—LOWDERMILK 421 


Sfax, also discredits the change of climate theory. Moreover, in the 
vicinity of Sousse, Tunisia, there are a few Roman olive orchards which 
escaped the destructive invasions of the seventh century and survive to 
the present day. No pulsations of climate have been sufficiently ad- 
verse to kill off this remnant of the agriculture of Roman times. 

The astounding decline in agriculture of the Near East and North 
Africa is not due primarily to adverse climatic change (14 and 12). 
It was begun by successful invasions of desert nomads during the 
seventh century and completed by soil erosion. This remarkable in- 
vasion, which not only destroyed a civilization, but its agriculture 
and, more important, the traditions of its agriculture, is another in- 
stance of the age-old struggle between Cain and Abel, between the 
shepherd and the farmer, between the tent dweller and the house 
dweller. The desert has always produced more people than it could 
feed. Farmers built up thriving cultures in the alluvial plains. From 
time to time the hungry tent dwellers swept into the valleys, when 
defenses were weak, and destroyed and robbed, sometimes passed on, 
and left destruction and carnage in their path. At other times they 
replaced the former population to become farmers and city dwellers 
themselves, only to be destroyed by another invasion of hungry deni- 
zens of the steppes or deserts. 

These nomad invaders and their herds unleashed the forces of soil 
erosion by water and by wind which through centuries have reduced 
the capacity of the land to produce or to be restored to its former 
productivity, except in some alluvial valleys. The achievement of 
conservation of land resources by long and tedious methods was nulli- 
fied by ruthless invasions and wars. : 

Such are some instances of the decline in the usefulness of the 
land due to the wastage of erosion and quickened run-off of storm 
waters, by the break-down of measures arrived at by long and slow 
experience of trial and error. The wisdom of the ages was nullified 
in a brief time, breaking into fragments the glories of the past. 

It is also fitting to examine some of the recent works to reclaim 
lands damaged by inconsiderate and reckless use in the past. 


RECLAMATION OF MARSHES 


The climate of the Mediterranean sets the stage for land destruction 
by erosion if special precautions are not taken in cultivated fields and 
on grazed slopes. Heavy rains occur generally as erratic storms dur- 
ing the winter months—October to April. The remainder of the 
year is rainless and hot. 

Where bold mountain ranges are bordered by comparatively broad 
coastal plains, as in Italy, Greece, Palestine and Algeria, cultivation 
of slopes unprotected by rock-wall terraces has induced serious soil 

566766—44_28 


422 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


erosion. Eroded soils and debris have choked up stream channels in 
the plains, converting these coastal plains into marshes. Malaria 
made the lowlands pestilential, weakened or practically depopulated 
extensive populous areas. 

Such is the history of the Pontine Marshes in Italy, whose reclama- 
tion is an outstanding example of the application of the modern 
sciences of medicine, engineering, and agriculture to such problems. 
The Pontine Marshes were once well populated if we are to accept 
as evidence remains of 16 cities which predated Roman occupation. 
Following the rapid rise of Rome from the eighth century B. C., 
cultivation of the slopes of the Apennine Mountains took the same 
course as it did in Phoenicia. By the fourth century B. C. Appius 
Claudius undertook to drain the marshes, which had become a 
problem (pl. 3, fig. 1). He was unsuccessful in reclaiming these 
pestilential Pontine Marshes as were his successors, Julius Caesar, 
Trajan, and Theodoric, and later on a number of Popes, especially 
Pope Pius VI. But in 1931 the Government of Italy undertook the 
reclamation of this age-old problem of Rome and Italy with military 
thoroughness as for a battle. Within 2 months the swamps had been 
drained and within 6 months farms had been laid out, concrete farm- 
houses built, and the town of Littoria fitted out with all necessary 
public buildings, centers, and residences as a service town to more 
than 100,000 acres of reclaimed land (pl. 3, fig. 2). In this time, 
260 miles of roads were built, nearly 6 million cubic yards of dirt 
were moved to make 1,097 miles of canals. 

This is a splendid achievement; 7 years prior to our visit (1938) 
this thriving area was a deadly marsh, impassable to man and beast 
alike; only water buffalo were able to survive. During this period 
approximately 363 million dollars were spent by Italy on public 
works. An additional amount of about 124 million dollars was 
granted to private landed properties for reclamation work. More 
than a third of the total expenditure was made to assist private land- 
owners to prepare their lands for subdivision and colonization. 

The justification of such great expenditures is the fundamental 
importance of the nation’s welfare, looking to self-sufficiency in agri- 
cultural crops. Investments of public funds for making lands pro- 
ductive for settlement of farm families also served the purposes of 
giving employment to thousands of unemployed, of settling people 
from congested industrial centers on the land, and of increasing the 
productive wealth of the nation as a whole. 


CONTROL OF TORRENTIAL FLOODS 


Population pressures in Italy of 836 and in France of 547 per square 
mile of cultivated area have exceeded the carrying capacities of the 
flat lands and have pushed the cultivation line up slopes in the Alps 


LAND USE—LOWDERMILK 423 


to steep gradients as forests were cleared away. These mountains had 
been sculptured by glaciers of the Ice Age into deep gorges bordered 
by hanging valleys, which set the stage for torrential debris floods as 
slopes were cleared of forests for cultivation or heavily grazed. 

France and Italy have been engaged for many years in the control 
of debris floods in mountain valleys. France has carried out for 60 
years a comprehensive program of works, with notable achievements. 
The experience of 60 years of such works is especially valuable in meet- 
ing the increasing hazards of floods in mountainous areas of the New 
World. Debris floods bury fields, orchards, and villages in valley 
floors, interrupt communication, and destroy livestock and human life. 
Losses over the past century have reached enormous figures and have 
stimulated brilliant engineering and remarkable measures of erosion 
control and revegetation. 

Correction of mountain torrents is most economically and effectively 
carried out as a gigantic chess game. It is man against nature, where 
man may perchance delay the inevitable long enough for his purposes. 
It takes time and daring as well to play this game, in addition to 
minute study of natural forces at work. As the torrent-control 
engineer builds each structure he waits to observe the responses of 
natural forces. These in turn determine his next move, whether to 
build another structure, or reinforce existing works, until in due time 
he is successful in checkmating torrential floods. The high costs of 
the control of torrents are justified by the protection of valley lands 
from damage, by the reduction of debris accumulations in stream 
channels, as a safeguard against rising water tables and marshy condi- 
tions in high-value alluvial lands, and by saving life. 

Two essential principals are followed in all torrent-control works: 
establishment of base levels of cutting in torrent channels with per- 
manent check dams, and revegetation of the catchment area. Similar 
work has been done in Bavaria in southern Germany, but it was not 
possible for me to continue the projected survey into Germany because 
of the outbreak of war in that fateful September. 


FIXATION OF SAND DUNES 


Problems of water-erosion control are most common on sloping 
lands, but those of wind-erosion control most often occur on flat lands. 
Sand dunes have been formed in semiarid regions by the sorting effect 
of wind erosion of cultivated lands. The wind sorts dry soils, lifting 
the fine and fertile particles to blow them away in dust clouds, whereas 
the heavier particles as sand are left behind to form hummocks and 
finally active sand dunes. Usually former farm lands of the Old 
World so damaged have been abandoned and left to their fate (8). 

In southwestern France the government has carried out the classic 
and greatest achievement in the fixation of a vast area of a “moist 


424 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Sahara” of sand dunes. A great pestilential sore spot in France, 
where dwelt poverty, malnutrition, and despair before the merciless 
march of gigantic sand dunes, was converted into a beautiful and 
productive forest and into a region of health resorts and prosperity. 
The destructive invasion of the Vandals in A. D. 407 set sand dunes 
onthe march. By Napoleon’s time they had covered 400,000 acres and 
had buried forests and farm villages, and dammed up the streams, 
causing a great area of coastal plain to overflow. Marshes brought 
in malaria, which diminished and weakened the resident population, 

Work of fixation and control was begun by Bremontier in 1786 
under the command of Napoleon. Reforestation of the dunes was 
made possible by creating a great littoral dune. This was done by 
means of a movable palisade of planks which were successively pulled 
up as the dune crest was raised. In time a dune was built up along 
the coast whose windward slope reached a grade too steep for the 
winds longer to blow sand over it. Thereupon, the slopes of the 
dune were fixed with sand grasses. Reforestation to the leeward and 
streams were thus safeguarded from further advance of dunes. Fol- 
lowing the fixation of dunes, drainage of 214 million acres of lowlands 
was made possible under the direction of Chambrelent. By 1865 
this memorable task was completed. 

One dune, near d’Arcachon, however, was left uncontrolled for 
some reason (pl, 4, fig. 1). It is 2 miles long, 14 mile wide, and 300 
feet high and is advancing on the forest at the rate of 60 to 65 feet 
a year. This active dune serves as a comparison of the present re- 
claimed dune area and gives some idea of the magnitude of the 
achievement of converting a devouring menace affecting 214 million 
acres of land into a healing resource. It is estimated that the return 
from the resin crop alone from the pine plantations has been sufficient 
to pay off all the original costs of this classic example of reclamation 
of sand dunes and pestilential marshes. 


CONQUEST OF THE SEA FOR LAND 


Conservation and utilization of natural resources is the striking 
lesson gained from Holland. Few nations have done so much with 
what little they have. Among the masterpieces of land reclamation, 
The Netherlands has achieved wonders in dewatering the ocean and 
transforming hundreds of thousands of acres of ocean floor into pro- 
ductive farm lands. Holland, with 2,500 persons to the square mile 
of cultivated area, required more land. She chose a policy of rec- 
lamation instead of conquest. When the present Zuider Zee project 
is completed, more than 550,000 additional acres, formerly inhabited 
by fish, will be occupied by people. In 1939 we saw farmers plowing 
the land, 13 to 16 feet below sea level, over which the salt fishermen 
had plowed the waves only 6 yearsbefore. (PI. 4, fig.3.) We watched 


LAND USE—LOWDERMILK 425 


the farmers threshing their huge stacks of grain, which resembled 
African villages on the landscape (pl. 4, fig. 2). 

Hollanders are experts in the use of land and the control of water. 
Since early times, picturesque Dutch windmills have drained the 
otherwise useless lowlands and lifted drainage water into canals to 
empty into the ocean. Since the completion of the huge 26-mile 
ocean dyke across the outlet of the Zuider Zee, Holland has con- 
quered her thousand-year-old enemy, the North Sea, and has provided 
her people with a much-needed sweet-water lake, new agricultural 
lands, and better transportation. The Dutch take an artistic pride 
in the excellence of the crops of their native soil; their farms and 
forests are models in management. This conquest of the soulless sea 
has carried with it none of the destructive horrors of modern war 
and has cost much less. The hope of the world in conservation 
rather than in destruction is made realistic by this masterpiece of 
reclamation. 


THE INSIDIOUS NATURE OF EROSION 


Our studies in lands long occupied by man disclose that soil erosion, 
i, e., man-induced erosion as distinguished from normal geologic ero- 
sion, is an insidious process that has destroyed lands and undermined 
progress of civilization and cultures. Achievements in the control of 
soil erosion and in adjustments of a lasting agriculture to sloping lands 
are steps in the march of civilization as momentous as the discovery of 
fire and the selection of food plants. 

Solutions to problems of population pressure have too often in the 
past been sought in the conquest and destruction of the works of 
peoples rather than in conservation and improving the potential pro- 
ductivity of the earth, with provision for exchange of specialty prod- 
ucts. The formula of exploitation and destruction has interrupted 
the orderly solutions to land-use problems in the past and has un- 
leashed the forces of erosion to spread like the tentacles of an octopus 
through the lands of North China, North Africa, Asia Minor, and the 
Holy Lands, as well as in the United States and other countries of the 
New World. 

One generation of people replaces another, but productive soils de- 
stroyed by erosion are seldom restorable and never replaceable. Con- 
servation of the basic soil resource becomes more than a matter of indi- 
vidual interest; it becomes a matter of national interest necessary to 
the continuing welfare of a people. The day is gone when lands may 
be worn out with the expectation of finding new lands to the west. 
The economy of exploitation must give place to an economy of con- 
servation if a people will survive into the unknown future, Peace 
among nations must rest upon such a policy. 


426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


In face of the limited area now available to the human race, the 
realization that enormous areas of land are still being destroyed by 
inconsiderate and wasteful methods must arouse thinking people to 
action. Ifman is making deserts out of productive lands, it is a matter 
not only of national, but of world-wide concern. 

If Moses had foreseen how soil erosion induced by inconsiderate use 
of land would devastate the “Promised Land,” as well as vast areas of 
the earth, resulting in man-made deserts and decadence of civiliza- 
tions; if he had foreseen the impoverishment, revolution, wars, migra- 
tions, and social decadence of billions of people throughout thousands 
of years because of the exploitation and desolation of their lands by 
erosion, he doubtless would have been inspired to deliver an Eleventh 
Commandment to complete the trinity of man’s responsibilities—to 
his Creator, to his fellow men, and to Mother Earth. Such a Com- 
mandment should read somewhat as follows: 

Thou shalt inherit the holy earth as a faithful steward, conserving its resources 
and productivity from generation to generation. Thou shalt safeguard thy fields 
from soil erosion, thy living waters from drying up, thy forests from desolation, 
and protect thy hills from overgrazing by thy herds, that thy descendants may 
have abundance forever. If any shall fail in this stewardship of the land thy 
fruitful fields shall become sterile stony ground or wasting gullies and thy descend- 
ants shall decrease and live in poverty or perish from off the face of the earth. 

Hitherto, mankind in its conquest of the land, except in very limited 
areas, has not been governed by such an injunction; on the contrary, 
mankind has been impelled by an economy of exploitation, looking to 
the discovery of new lands or new sources of food and materials as 
needs arise. The lands of the world are occupied and such a policy 
leads inevitably to conflict. 

The solution of such conflicts in the past has been sought generally 
in a formula of war with destruction of property, works, and human 
lives as means of arriving at agreements. As this paper is being written 
fully half the human population of the earth, more than a billion 
human beings, have as their most absorbing purpose to destroy the 
achievements and works of generations and the annihilation of popu- 
lations, soldiers and civilian men, women, and children. Civilization 
is committing suicide. 

Sooner or later peoples engaged in modern warfare will become 
weary and exhausted by this hellish frenzy of destruction and car- 
nage. Mankind may then be prepared to accept an alternative—a 
substitute for destruction in the conservation of the earth’s resources, 
in maintaining and improving necessary supplies. Under scientific 
conservation, the earth will produce beyond the dreams of mankind. 

Besides, the formula of destructive exploitation has failed miser- 
ably to solve problems of growing populations; it has only set back 
the same problem to come forth again with more insistence. The 


LAND USE—LOWDERMILK 427 


fate of lands devastated and despoiled by erosion, which is most often 
associated with war or conquest, stands as a warning to mankind to 
change from an economy of exploitation to an economy of conserva- 
tion—of healing and saving conservation. 

We must be fully prepared to defend our sovereignty and liberty 
of action against all aggressors. At the same time, the Americas 
are best situated to make the principle of conservation realistic in 
the use of land resources. Thus interpreted and reduced to works 
of saving soils and waters on the land as necessary to the conserva- 
tion of human resources and values, the principle of conservation 
may be compelling and enticing enough to turn a war-weary world 
from a suicidal frenzy of destruction and carnage to a saving and 
healing conservation. The lands of the earth will record the decision 
of mankind as to this momentous question. 


LITERATURE CITED 
1. BIBLE. 
Deuteronomy VIII, 7-9. 
2. BREASTED, JAMES H. 
1906. Ancient records of Egypt, vol. 1, p. 146. Chicago. 
3. GAUTIER, E. F. 
1935. Sahara, the great desert, pp. 95-99. Translated by D. F. Mayhew. 
New York. 
4, GSELL, STEPHANE. 
1918. Histoire ancienne de 1’Afrique du Nord, vol.1. Paris. 
ay (Chong, 324, 1h (Op 
Unpublished notes. 
6. KNIGHT, M. M. 
1928. Water and the course of empire in North Africa. Quart. Journ. 
Econ., vol. 48, pp. 44-98, November. 
7. LESCHI. 
Unpublished reports. 
8. LowpDERMILE, W. C. 
1939. Field notes. 
9. LUCKENBILL, DANIEL D. 
1927. Ancient records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1, pp. 98, 194 f. 
Chicago. 
10. MARTONNE, EMMANUEL DE. 
1930. a degradation de Vhydrographie. Scientia, vol. 47, pp. 9-20, 
January. (See p. 19.) 
11. PEAKE, HARoLp J. 
1933. Early steps in human progress, Philadelphia. 
12. PLAYFAIR, Sir Rosert L. 
1877. Travels in the footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis, p. 155. 
London. 
18. THoumIN, R. L. 
1936. Geographie humaine de la Syrie Centrale, p. 125. Paris. 
14, WooLry, C. LEONARD, and LAWRENCE, T. BE. 
1914-1915. The wilderness of Zin (archaeological report). Palestine 
Exploration Fund. London. 


a 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Lowdermilk PLATE 1 


1. The Tripoli groves of cedars in the forests of the cedars of Lebanon, Lebanon, Syria, September 1939. 
2, 3. Not far from Beyrouth is a valley where we found the climax in adjustment of permanent agriculture 
to steep, sloping lands. September 1939. 

4. Well-planned and well-constructed Jewish colonies have great agricultural possibilities if the Jews are 
permitted to continue with their program of land reclamation in Palestine. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Lowdermilk PLATE 2 


. Oblique aerial view of Kalaat Samaan ruins of the sanctuary of St. Simon, showing the denuded condition 


of adjacent slopes. Some cultivation is taking place within the walls of the ruins which have held back 
the soil from being eroded away. (Courtesy of Father J. Mattern, 8. J.) 

Aerial view of hills of Judaea near Hebron. April 1939. 

Vertical aerial view of Gerade, which belongs to the southern group of Dead Cities. 

The largest and only village for many miles around the former city of Djemila, which in Roman times 
boasted more than 11,000 population. January 1939. 

View of the giant coliseum at El Djem. February 1939. 

The market square in the excavated Roman city of Djemila, where once were sold products of the sur- 
rounding lands. The denuded erosion-gullied slopes bear mute evidence of their wreckage and soil 
losses. January 1939. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Lowdermilk PLATE 3 


1. The ill-famed fever-infested Pontine Marshes, being a view of the site now occupied by the City of 
Littoria. Before reclamation. 

2. Oblique aerial view of Pontine Marshes, as seen in photograph above, after reclamation, showing the 
city of Littoria under construction as a beautiful administrative and market center of the reclaimed 
area. Note scores of farm houses sprinkled over the plain. 


Photographs courtesy of the Government of Italy.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Lowdermilk PLATE 4 


_ 


. Leeward side of the untamed dune near d’ Arcachon, showing the advance of the dune on the forest, 
engulfing it at the rate of about 60 to 65 feet a year. November 1938. 


2. Inside view of a Holland farmer’s crop of gold in this “‘Dutch-made Agricultural Heaven on Earth” 
below sea level. September 1939. 
3. Wieringerwerf, the last of three villages, is shown under construction. The broad freight canal running 


diagonally across the picture has movable bridges. The dark borders around the rectangular farms 
are barge canals. The drainage ditches for leaching out the salt content from the new-born lands appear 
as fine lines. Agricultural specialists nurse the land with special treatment until it can be cropped to 
clover. It is then weaned and turned over to individual farmers. 


AREAL AND TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF ABORIGINAL 


SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE! 


By Jonn M. Cooper 
The Catholic University of America 


[With 4 plates] 
CONTENTS 


UTS GME al ne ee 
Physica llenvinOnin ents. semen. 2 seme eae RS ee le 
Poa mera TOCINM ls es eee es SO ee 
Preitie terested lowlands Ysie *e Aeee eg eu Le oh 

Be Pheopen-cOuUntry Deltas 225. .oeeeetee stot se Sele ee oO 
SOmAatolomye wee kiss JET ILL AMR UAT RM I RA ae Po SiS EN Sa A 
TAP MIE DO ISEOGKS Es TERR) Tp, eee Ss ie ti 8s Leip fe 
MARR eee 8 ort cp he eee Bo hte poe woe ose AN 
AC PATeAITGIStrDUtION ep pemrre ee wate meg eee yy vs es ae 

fem ViareinalCultimeseme s&s Neer ne Lk) oN eee 
PTY AL CUT UTC eeeern pat enemies tLe Ge Ee eee 

oo mlerrel culguremesee ces. SORE R Shi st Sul bs Been T 

BS Diffusion and:temporalisequence. 2ete82 2204. see. oe glee 2 

1. European and Negro diffusion: post-Columbian____________- 

2. Aboriginal diffusion and sequence: since circa A. D. 1000_--_- 

a. Diffusion within and from Sierral culture_...._____-__-- 

b. Diffusion within and from Silval culture__.____---__--- 

3. Aboriginal diffusion and sequence: before circa A. D. 1000_- 

a. Sierral versus Silval and Marginal__._________-__---__- 

eonpilwali versa niareinale. fe 6s 2 fi Le bee 

PPO wlbursevidences oo 2 28 So) oe I es 
(amsouthvAmericdne ee ba 2 ee eee 

tb): Pan*‘Americanit: 8 0) Ob ek dM OL 

(2) Somatological evidence. _____-___--------------- 

(3) Geographical evidence_-______------------------- 

4. The question of Old World influence____.__--.-_-__----_--_- 

PSL EPETOETES Gh gh, WAR) ine eat AE Rea Pr a a RRR RICA! D'S 7 
Tentative prehistorical reconstruction 
Bibliography 


INTRODUCTION 


The purpose of the present paper is to give a bird’s-eye view of 


aboriginal cultural distribution and sequence in South America. 


The 


West Indies and southern Middle America from the Isthmus to about 


1 Reprinted by permission from Primitive Man, vol. 15, Nos, 1 and 2, January and April, 1942. 


° 429 


430 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


central Honduras are included, since they are linked culturally more 
to South America than to North America.? The paper has been 
written, not for seasoned specialists in South American anthropology, 
but for nonspecialists, to set up an areal and temporal framework into 
which the enormously complex factual data can be provisionally fitted 
and to offer a first-aid guide to the anthropological literature of the 
continent. No attempt has been made, of course, to include an ade- 
quate list of the innumerable first-hand sources. Good bibliographies 
of these may be found in Nordenskidld, especially 1920; Krickeberg, 
1922, 1989; W. Schmidt, 1913; Izikowitz, 1935; Gillin, 1940. 

For a better understanding of cultural distribution and sequence 
in South America, a few of the more pertinent data upon physical 
environment and racial and linguistic divisions are premised. 


PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT ® 


Geographically Pan America may be looked upon as a quasi 
peninsula jutting out from the extreme northeast tip of the Afro- 
Eurasiatic land mass which we assume to be the birthplace of the 
human race. Thus, of the larger continental areas of the world, 
South America is farthest removed from man’s primal home, the most 
isolated, and probably the latest to be inhabited. 

South America may, for our present purpose, be divided into three 
major regions: (1) the mountainous western fringe, with its flanking 
coastal plains, and, east thereof, (2) the forested lowlands of the 
north, northeast, and center of the continent, and (3) the more or 
less open country of the east and south. With these three areas co- 
incides fairly well the distribution of the three major cultural group- 
ings of the continent—a correlation to which we shall return later. 

1. The Andean region—The Andean cordillera lifts its peaks, 
ranges, and plateaus, paralleling the coast, from Panama to its dip 
beneath the ocean at Cape Horn. Toward the Pacific it is flanked 
over most of its extent by a narrow strip of lowland: tropical rain 
forest down to about Payta (5° S. lat.), in extreme northern Peru; 
the Peruvian-Chilean coastal desert thence about 1,600 miles to near 
La Serena (30° S. lat.), Chile; dry forest and temperate rain forest 
from La Serena to the Magellanic archipelago. 

2. The forested lowlands—The forested lowlands of the Orinoco 
and Amazon watersheds, lying east of the northern half of the 
cordillera, form a vast, roughly quadrangular area. The northwest- 
ern and southwestern sides of this quadrangle are formed by the 
Andes; the northeastern, by the Atlantic coast line from central 

2 Thomas and Swanton, 1911, p. 96; Mason, 1988, pp. 311-314 ; Lothrop, 1940 ; Kidder II, 
1940. Cf. Lothrop, 1939. - 


3 Geographical data in this section of paper largely based on: Jones, 1930; Denis, 1927 ; 
Zon and Sparhawk, 1923; Whitbeck, Williams, and Christians, 1940. Cf. James, 1942. 
. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 431 


Venezuela to about 400 miles southeast of the mouth of the Amazon; 
the southeastern, by a broken line running from this last point across 
country to central Bolivia. The sides of the great quadrangle are 
about 1,300 to 1,500 miles long. Most of the area is covered with 
dense tropical rain forest, except for the extensive savannas of the 
middle Orinoco and of the Guiana highlands, 

3. The open-country belt.—The third division of South America, 
representing about one-half of the continental area, is the region 
bounded on the west by the southern Andes, on the northwest by 
the Amazonian rain forest, and on the northeast and southeast by 
the Atlantic. It is mostly open country, treeless or only sparsely 
wooded—erasslands, savannas, bushlands, and steppes—including the 
eastern Brazilian and Matto Grosso highlands, the Gran Chaco, the 
Uruguayan plains, the Argentinian Pampa, the Patagonian plateau 
and part of Tierra del Fuego. On the Atlantic border of the 
Brazilian highlands, the tropical rain forest extends in a narrow 
coastal strip down to about 25° S. lat. The chief break in this great 
open-country belt is that made by the subtropical forests of southern 
Brazil and of the Paraguay and Parana. basins. The inland and up- 
land savannas of the Brazilian and Matto Grosso highlands are thus 
practically ringed with heavily forested country, mostly lowlands. 
To the far southwest of the open belt lies the Chonoan and Magellanic 
archipelago, flanking the mainland for about 1,200 miles from Chiloé 
to Cape Horn and covered mostly with temperate rain forests. 


SOMATOLOGY 


Our data on the living races of man on the Southern American con- 
tinent are very incomplete. Only in four or five scattered spots do they 
approach anything like adequacy, while for enormous areas, such as 
most of the Amazonian forested area, they are lacking almost entirely. 
No thorough analysis or interpretation even of the sparse data we 
have has been attempted. Dixon dealt with only certain selected 
elements. Biasutti’s review is wanting in detail. Our most recent 
study, Hickstedt’s, is at best provisional; however, such as it is, it 
represents at least a start.‘ 

Eickstedt isolates four main physical types (pl. 1) two tending to- 
ward brachycephaly, two toward dolichocephaly—although one of 
these latter two, his Brazilid type, falls in the main within meso- 
cephaly. Eickstedt blocks out the following distributions: The Andid 
subrace, broad-headed and of relatively low stature, occupying most 


4Dixon, 1923, pp. 443-472; Biasutti, 1912, pp. 140-143, maps 1-7; Eickstedt, 1934, pp. 
720-759, 838-876, map opp. p. 752; Pericot, 1936, pp. 593-727, passim, good for bibliog- 
raphy; Krickeberg, 1922, pp. 217-219. For references to other classifications and distri- 
butions, see: Gusinde, 1939, pp. 406-418 ; Imbelloni, 1937. 


432 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


of the Andean area down to Chiloé; the Pampid subrace, brachy- 
cephalous and of relatively tall stature, of the Matto Grasso plateau, 
the Chaco, the Uruguayan plains, most of the Pampa region, and Pata- 
gonia; the Brazilid subrace, of medium to short stature and heavy 
torso, tending toward dolichocephaly [mesocephaly], of the Ama- 
zonian and Orinoco watersheds, most of the coastal forest belt flanking 
the Brazilian highlands, and the Buenos Aires region; the Lagid sub- 
race, more markedly dolichocephalous, of medium to low stature, and 
of lighter torso, occupying the Brazilian highlands, and the Chonoan 
and Magellanic archipelago. 

In general it can be said that the Andean region is more dominantly 
brachycephalic, while in what we are calling the open-country belt 
there is much more of dolichocephaly. In rain-forest areas, apart 
from the Colombian coastal region, there is more tendency toward 
mesocephaly. These broad generalizations are subject to local 
exceptions. 

On the prehistoric South American racial types our data are like- 
wise very sparse and inadequate, particularly for the tropical rain- 
forest region. None of our prehistoric human remains is of demon- 
strated great age. Ameghino’s claim to have discovered Tertiary man 
has long since been successfully challenged and disproved. In the hill 
caves of Lagoa Santa in southern Brazil and in the sambaquis (shell 
heaps) of the southeastern Brazilian coast have been discovered skel- 
etal remains of a race or races of seemingly considerable age. But there 
is no clear evidence of very great age. The 17 Lagoa Santa skulls are 
fairly high and, with one exception, dolichocephalous; the coastal 
shell-heap or sambaqui type is likewise dolichocephalous but with 
rather low forehead. A number of older post-Pleistocene remains 
have been found in the Pampas; some others here and there in the 
Andean region, such as the Punin skull of Riobamba, Ecuador. These 
earlier skulls from the Pampa and Andean region, like the Lagoa 
Santa and sambaqui skulls, are consistently long-headed, and many 
of them show other seemingly significant similarities with some of the 
living peoples such as the Botocudo and Fuegians, whom Eickstedt 
includes in his Lagid race.° 

From such evidence as we have, sparse and incomplete though it be, 
we seem to be on fairly safe ground in concluding that earlier man in 
South America was long-headed,® that the broadheads represent a 
later stratum, and that many of the modern Lagids are survivors of 
this earlier type and have preserved to greater or lesser degree its 
characteristics. The modern Lagids, or at least many of them, would 
thus seem to represent the more primitive type of South American 

5 Hrdlitka, 1912; Hickstedt, 1984, pp. 748-759; Sullivan and Hellman, 1925, Punin 


ealvarium ; Walter, Cathoud, and Mattos, 1937, Confins man. 
6 As in North America: Stewart, 1940. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 433 


man. Whether the brachycephalic type or types developed out of 
the earlier dolichocephalic type or types, or represent a later migra- 
tion into South America across the Panama bridge or the Antilles, is 
an open question. All that we can say with any confidence is that the 
broadheads appear in the main to be more recent. | 


LINGUISTIC STOCKS 


As our evidence stands today, there are more linguistic stocks, by 
probably a good 50 percent, in South America than in North and 
Middle America combined. Our most important recent review, Riv- 
et’s, lists 77 such South American linguistic stocks. In view of our 
scant evidence for many areas and peoples and of our lack of a thor- 
ough analysis of the evidence we have, this number is provisional only. 
In all probability it will be appreciably increased or decreased as our 
information itself and the analysis thereof become fuller. Particu- 
larly defective is our information for the Brazilian highland region, al- 
though Nimuendaji and one or two others are helping to clear up the 
situation.’ 

Of these 77 stocks, about 14 are spoken over a good four-fifths of 
the continental area. In the Andean region, passing from north to 
south, Chibcha, Quechua, Aymara, and Araucanian cover nearly the 
whole area. Over a good two-thirds or more of the Orinoco-Ama- 
zonian forest belt and in the West Indies are spoken Arawak, Carib, 
Tupi, Tucano, and Pano, or were in post-Columbian times spoken. 

In the open-country belt, about four-fifths or more of the area 
is or was inhabited by people of Gé, Guaycurti, Charrua, Puelche, and 
Tshon stocks. 

Most of the remaining 63 stocks are scattered over the rest of the 
continent, not checkerboard fashion, or at random, but in the main 
distributed in a great broken crescent extending in the west along 
the base of the Andes and to the south along the southern borders 
of the Amazonian forest and of the Brazilian highlands to the At- 
lantic coast. This marginal distribution may be explained in either 
one of two ways. The peoples speaking these stocks may have been 
driven to marginal areas by the more numerous and more powerful 
peoples of Arawak, Carib, Tupi, and other stocks. Or else we may 
assume that before the deployment of these latter through the Ori- 
noco-Amazonian belt, this area was occupied by a very great number 
of peoples of distinct linguistic stocks, and that, as the Arawak, Carib, 
Tupi, and others spread out over the area, these earlier residents 


TRivet, 1924, pp. 639-707; Nimuendajii and Lowie, 1937, pp, 565-566. For linguistic 
(and tribal) maps of South America, see: Rivet, 1924; W. Schmidt, 1926, Atlas, largely 
utilizing Rivet; Krickeberg, 1922, 1939; Pericot, 1936, largely based on previous maps, 
bibliography ; Krieger, 1935, adapted from Krickeberg and Roth. For linguistic maps of 
Middle America, see Mason, 1940, and Johnson, 1940; Thomas and Swanton, 1911. 


434 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


took over the languages of the invading swarms, thus leaving the 
earlier atomistic distribution of stocks on the uninvaded margins of 
the area. We have many instances, historically and ethnologically 
verified, of such change of language as a result of Tupi, Carib, and 
Arawak invasion or contact. 

At any rate, the distribution of stocks in South America is in itself 
evidence of very wide migrations and drifts, many of them estab- 
lished historically—migrations and drifts facilitated by the lack of 
great natural barriers over the vast lowland areas of the continent, 
and stimulated to a considerable extent, within the horticultural belt 
by the prevalent milpa agriculture,’ and for the Tupi, by the ancient 
and deep-seated tradition of a distant Utopia beckoning them on.° 


CULTURE 
A. AREAL DISTRIBUTION 


For purposes of description and interpretation, the aboriginal cul- 
tures of South America may be classified regionally into three large 
divisions, the areas occupied by these divisions corresponding roughly 
to the Andean uplands, the forested Orinoco-Amazon lowlands, and 
what we have called the open-country belt. For convenience we are 
calling these three cultural groupings the Sierral, the Silval, and the 
Marginal, respectively. The Marginal is so denominated in view of 
the fact that technologically it is simpler than either of the other two 
and that regionally it borders on” and is marginal to the Sierral 
and Silval areas.” 

1. Marginal culture.—In this grouping we include the Gé-speaking 
peoples (provisionally) and the Botocudo (Borun), Masakali Patago, 
Puri, Waitaka, and others of eastern Brazil, together with the 
Bororé, Guaté, and Guayakf, as well as the peoples of the Chaco, of 
the Uruguayan plains, of the Argentine Pampa and of Patagonia, and 
the Ona, Yahgan, Alacaluf, Chono, and Chango—who, in the main, 
may be looked upon as externally marginal to the Sierral and Silval 
areas; and also certain peoples now or until recently of very simple 
culture such as the Yaruro, Maki, Schirianéa, Waika, Bahina, Huht- 


8M. Schmidt, 1917 ; cf. Cook, 1921. 

® Métraux, 1928, pp. 201-224. 

. 10 We have no satisfactory comprehensive description of South American culture. Kricke- 
berg, 1922 and 1939, and Nordenskisold, 1912b, come nearest, but much new material has 
come out in these last two or three decades. Stout, 1938, has a good short summary. The 
Handbook of South American Indians, now being prepared by the Smithsonian Institution, 
under the able direction of Dr. Julian H. Steward, with the cooperation of a group of 
specialists, will be published about 1944 or 1945. For West Indies see: Fewkes, 1907; 
Lovén, 1935.. For Panama region : Lothrop, 1937. 

‘11 Wissler, 1917, used a fivefold division. Krickeberg, 1922, adopted a twofold one: 
Naturvélker, with six subdivisions, and Kulturvélker, with four subdivisions; in 1939, a 
threefold one: collectors, gardeners, and Kulturvélker. Stout, 1938, has worked out a 
ninefold division, his Nos. 4-6 corresponding roughly to our Sierral, No. 7 to our Silval, 
the remaining five to our Marginal. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 435 


teni, Katapolitani, Mura, and Sironé, who are found widely scattered 
here and there in the Silval area as internally Marginal groups. (See 
fig. 1.) The externally Marginal peoples occupy most of our open- 
country belt, except such sections of the forested land therein as are 
or were occupied by horticultural tribes, mostly Tupi.? Some of the 
foregoing tribes, such as the Gé, Mura, and Sirioné, may later turn out 
to be culturally retrogressed Silval peoples. 

Between these many Marginal peoples one finds very numerous 
and profound regional and tribal divergences of culture.’* But un- 
derlying these divergences there exists very considerable uniformity 
of culture both in what is present and in what is absent. 

We may sum up this basic uniformity about as follows: Food- 
getting by hunting, fishing and gathering, with horticulture either 
absent or only rudimentary or less developed among most groups; no 
domestic animals except the dog, and even the dog absent here and 
there; more commonly no stimulants (alcoholic beverages, tobacco, 
coca), or else demonstrably or probably of relatively recent or even 
post-Columbian introduction; pottery very often absent or, where 
present, of relatively crude type; clothing and adornment usually 
either very meager or very simple; weaving absent or at best rudi- 
mentary; shelter of the simplest, such as the lean-to, beehive hut 
(pl. 8, upper), and so forth; mats or skins on ground for sleeping; 
use of stone, bone, or wood for weapons and utensils, with practically 
complete absence of metals; unusually long bows and arrows among 
many of the internally Marginal and northern externally Marginal 
peoples; fire-making by drill over most of the area, but by the per- 
cussion method in the Magellanic archipelago and among the 
Guayaki and some Tehuelche; cannibalism absent or practically so; 
well-organized ,family system with prevalent monogamy or simple 


“For the convenience of readers who may desire to follow through or check up on the 
content of the culture of these Marginal peoples, the more important first-hand and second- 
hand sources, many of them containing bibliographies, are here listed. Gé and other eastern 
Brazilian marginals: Ploetz and Métraux, 1929; Métraux, 1939; Snethlage, 1930; Nimu- 
endaj, 1938, 1939, 1942b; Nimuendaja and Lowie, 1937, 1939; Lowie, 1940b, pp. 423-439, 
1941; Henry, 1941. Bororé: Colbacchini, [1924]; Lévi-Strauss, 1936; von den Steinen, 
1894. Guat6: M. Schmidt, 1905, 1914. Guayaki: Vellard, 1934. Chaco: no satisfactory 
survey available that embodies the newer data from the many scattered sources ; a thorough 
one by Métraux about completed but not yet published ; short surveys in Krickeberg, 1922, 
pp. 293-305, and 1939, pp. 108-117; cf. also Nordenski6éld, 1919, 1920; bibliography in 
Pericot, 1936. Uruguay and Paran4 delta: Lothrop, 1932; Rivet, 1930. Argentine Pampa 
and Patagonia : Outes and Bruch, 1910; Palavecino, 19384. Ona, Yahgan, Alacaluf (Chono) : 
Gusinde, 1931, 1937; Lothrop, 1928; Cooper, 1917. Chango: Latcham, 1910. Yaruro: 
Petrullo, 1939. Schirianf, Waika, Maki, BahGna, Huhtteni, Katapolitani: Koch-Griinberg, 
1906a, 1906b, 1922, and 1923, pp. 248-319. The Bahtna, Dr. Irving Goldman informs me 
from his field studies in the area, are a sib rather than a tribe; there is some question, too, 
as to the correctness of Koch—Griinberg’s assumption that the Schirianfi and others had 
only recently adopted horticulture. Mura, Sirioné: extremely meager data available; for 
Mura, cf. Tastevin, 1923 ; Bates, 1892, pp. 166-170 ; for sources on Sirioné, see Pericot, 1936; 
Gillin, 1940, p. 648. Four subdivisions of the South American Marginals are suggested in 
Cooper, 1942. 

183 As among Marginals elsewhere, as Lowie, 1940a, pp. 417-418, has recently emphasized. 


436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


YARURO 


BAHUNA hie 
MUHUTEN s—SCHIRIANA=WAIKA 
KATAPOLI TANIA 


EASTERN 
LIMIT OF 
SIERRAL 
CULTURG 


SIRIONO, 


CHACO TRIBES 


A 


A ae KI 
ees 


PUELCHE-QUERANDI 
eeeea = 
APPROAIMAT E , 
SOUTHERN 
LIMIT OF N 
Se Slice: 


TEHVELCHE 
CHONO —>, 


) 


9 
ALACALU Ee 


Figure 1.—Distribution in historic times of South American Sierral, Silval, and 
Marginal culture, and southern limit of agriculture. Apart from the areas in- 
habitated by the Marginal peoples designated on the map, nearly all the territory 
east of the eastern limit of Sierral culture and north of the southern limit of 
horticulture has in historical times shared the Silval culture. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 437 


polygyny, and here and there rather strict monogamy; the typical 
political unit a small band, usually made up of relatives, with bands 
occasionally forming loosely cohesive tribes with or without chief- 
taincy of limited power; moieties and moietylike tribal divisions 
as a rule absent, but reported among the Yaruro, Bororé, and some 
of the Gé peoples, the moiety organization among the latter 
being of marked complexity; levirate, sororate, and avoidances of 
fairly wide distribution; among a number of the tribes, especially 
the Yaruro and Ona, land-tenure systems resembling closely the 
northeastern North American family hunting-ground system; sha- 
manism, but absence of priesthood; religion in general seemingly a 
little more animistic than manistic, with well-defined theism among 
at least a good many groups, and recorded in detail among the 
Fuegians, the Apinayé, and the Yaruro (pl. 4, upper). 

2. Silval culture*—The area of the Silval culture includes not 
only the broad Amazonian-Orinoco forested region with its adjacent 
and enclosed savannas, but also the Guianas, the West Indies, most 
of Middle America from Honduras to the Isthmus, the rain-forest 
belt of the Colombian and eastern Brazilian coast, the temperate 
rain forests of southern Brazil and the Parand-Paraguay region, 
and the forested Andean foothills bordering the northern Chaco. 

As in the Marginal culture, so in the Silval culture there are in- 
numerable and important local differences, but underlying these there 
is a quite perceptible uniformity. These more uniform character- 
istics of this far-flung Silval culture may be summed up about as 
follows: Horticulture universal, with use of dibble rather than hoe, 
and carried on under the slash-and-burn, shifting-cropping or milpa 
system; manioc (pl. 2, upper), sweet or bitter, a, or the, basic staple 
over most of the area, with, however, a good deal of maize, beans, 
sweetpotatoes, and so forth; the dog, at present, practically but not 
quite universal; widespread use of poison in fishing, and, toward the 
northwest particularly, of the blowgun with curare-poisoned darts in 
hunting; tobacco and alcoholic beverages throughout the area, the 
latter made with mastication (except of course for wines and mead) 
and indulged in to intoxication at festival drinking sprees; canni- 
balism widespread, particularly but not exclusively among Tupi- and 
Carib-speaking peoples; well-made but simple pottery, here and there 
reported archeologically and ethnologically of unusually good type as 
at Santarem and around the mouth of the Amazon; notable meagerness 
or absence of clothing, with, however, rather elaborate body adorn- 
ment, particularly featherwork; lip plug of fairly wide distribution; 


144QOur best reviews of culture of area are Krickeberg, 1922 and 1939. For distributions 
of material culture elements, see Nordenskiéld, 1919, 1920, 1924, 1931. For social organi- 
zation, see Kirchhoff, 1931; Haeckel, 1938. For sources, see Gillin, 1940; Pericot, 1936. 


566766—44——_29 


438 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


fairly well-developed weaving; shelter of timber framework demand- 
ing fairly advanced carpentry and commonly of dimensions large 
enough to house a considerable number of people (pl. 8, middle), with 
inside ground areas reported up to about 10,000 square feet or more; 
hammocks; weapons and tools of stone, where it is available; some 
metal ornaments; major social unit in the tribe consisting more com- 
monly, where data are reported, of the extended family or sib living 
in the large houses above mentioned, with villages often comprising 
only one or two, at most several, such houses; villages at times con- 
federated into a loose tribal organization; moiety and sib systems 
recorded here and there, some of the moiety systems bearing marked 
resemblance in certain details to those found among the Gé peoples; 
levirate, sororate, and avoidances not uncommon; couvade widespread ; 
religion, as far as known, largely shamanistic and animistic, with at 
least a good deal of theism among many groups (pl. 4, lower). 

3. Sierral cultwre.—The Sierral culture extends from Colombia to 
the northern Araucanian area and is shared by the peoples of the 
region we have previously described as the Andean area, except the 
tribes of the rain-forest coastal strip in the north who belong more 
to the Silval culture, and the Changos of the Chilean coastal desert 
and the Chono-Fuegian Canoe Indians whose culture is of the Mar- 
ginal type. The Araucanians of middle Chile down to Chiloé are 
in the main on a markedly simpler culture level than the peoples far- 
ther north, but in many respects are linked genetically with the 
Sierral culture proper and so may best be included therein. 

Again, as in the Marginal and Silval culture, marked local 
differences appear in the Sierral culture as one passes down the 
Andean highland from Colombia to the south, but there is like- 
wise beneath the divergences an underlying cultural uniformity. 

The more characteristic traits of the Sierral culture may be summed 
up as follows: Horticulture universal, with maize as the chief 
staple and beans ranking next, except in the very high altitudes where 
white potatoes, oca, and quinoa are basic; garden plots and fields tend- 
ing to be of more permanent location than under the Silval milpa 
system, with irrigation in the drier lowlands and with terraces in the 
highlands (pl. 2, lower) ; the ama and alpaca domesticated and used 
for transportation, wool, food, and sacrifices ; coca chewing as a stimu- 
lant, in addition to tobacco and alcoholic beverages; very high develop- 
ment of pottery and weaving; full body clothing (in contrast to 
predominant Silval near-nudity); advanced metallurgy, in copper, 
platinum, gold, and (from Ecuador south) silver, but not in iron, with 
smelting, casting by direct and lost-wax methods, alloying of gold and 

16 Thompson, 1936, gives an excellent summary of Sierral cultures, for the general reader, 


with selected bibliographies. For fuller treatment, especially of Peru, with bibliography, 
see Means, 1931. For types of horticulture in Sierral and Silval cultures, see Sapper, 1954. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 439 


copper (tumbac), of gold and silver, and of copper and tin (bronze), 
sintering of gold and platinum (Ecuador),' plating, gilding, sold- 
ering, and welding; ordinary dwellings as a rule of very simple con- 
struction but advanced megalithic architecture (pl. 3, lower) in the 
central Andean region in the building of temples, fortifications, and 
other public structures ; roads, suspension and stone bridges; the quipu 
knot-record system, but no writing; wide use as weapons of slings, 
stone-headed and metal-headed clubs, spear and spear thrower, and 
bolas, with bow and arrow absent or of quite secondary importance (as 
contrasting with the Silval and most of the Marginal area where the 
bow and arrow and the unheaded club predominate) ; advanced politi- 
cal institutions with high organization and centralization, and partic- 
ularly in the Inca civilization, militaristic imperialism; tribute and 
taxes; organized standing army; earlier pre-Inca tenure of garden 
plots in severalty supplanted later under Inca rule by limited com- 
munal control of land; elaborate market system; highly organized 
priesthood and ritualism, alongside of considerable shamanism; 
animal and, to a limited extent, human sacrifice; marked solar cult. 

As is obvious from the foregoing summary descriptions, the Margi- 
nal, Silval, and Sierral cultures represent in the main three fairly dis- 
tinct levels of technological and economico-political achievement, the 
Marginal being the simplest, the Silval more developed, and the Sierral 
the most complex. 

It has been our main purpose so far to block out only in broadest out- 
line the nature and distribution of these three contrasting cultural 
types over the South American Continent and the adjacent areas of the 
West Indies and Central America. To keep the picture from becoming 
too intricate, we have purposely closed our eyes to the numberless 
tribal and areal cultural diversities and have tried to see the continent 
as a cultural whole, even at the risk of appearing to oversimplify the 
well-recognized unending complexities of South American aboriginal 
culture. 

B. DIFFUSION AND TEMPORAL SEQUENCE 


Our next task is that of interpretation—here an attempt to deter- 
mine spatial and temporal relationships. As initial steps toward 
working out a provisional reconstruction of cultural sequence on the 
continent we may first isolate and strip off certain cultural elements in 
modern aboriginal South American culture that are demonstrably 
post-Columbian, and secondly, survey some of the more significant 
earlier diffusions that are clearly or reasonably inferable from the data 
at our command. 


18 Bergsge, 1937 (cf. reviews by J. A. Mason and D. Horton in Amer. Antiquity, vol. 4, pp. 
84-87, 1938. 
17 Santa Cruz, 1940. 


440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


1. EUROPEAN AND Necro DiFrusion : Post-CoLUMBIAN 


A very great number of important elements, widespread among and 
well integrated into contemporary aboriginal South American culture, 
are, aS is well known, due to introduction by Europeans since 1492. 
Such are, for instance, among domesticated plants, sugarcane, banana, 
watermelon; among domesticated animals, the horse, cattle, sheep, 
goats, pigs, chickens; firearms; weapons, utensils, and tools of iron; 
perhaps the pellet-bow; and of course many social, economic, political, 
and religious concepts and practices. Some less widespread and less 
significant elements are traceable to post-Columbian Negro influence, 
such as the marimba, and specific types of African drum.’® 


2. ABORIGINAL DIFFUSION AND SEQUENCE: Sincp Criroa A. D. 1000 


With the historical, ethnological, and archeological data at our com- 
mand today we are able to plot for a great many cultural elements, 
complexes, clusters, and types the diffusion routes that can be chron- 
ologically classified as of post-Columbian times or else as of the centu- 
ries immediately preceding the Discovery, and consequently relatively 
recent. Some of these diffusions are demonstrable or practically so, 
others rest on reasonable probabilities. Such diffusions of course pre- 
suppose and are temporally posterior to the rise and establishment of 
the respective cultures involved. If we strip them off the cultural pic- 
ture of modern aboriginal South America we can see a little more 
clearly the broader outlines of cultural distribution in South America 
several centuries before the Discovery—say about the year A. D. 1000, 
to select a more or less arbitrary date. Diffusion of cultural elements 
from the Marginal peoples to the Silval and Sierral has seemingly 
been minimal. Diffusion has occurred almost exclusively from and 
within the Sierral and Silval cultures. In each there have been certain 
marked major diffusions and others of minor significance. Let us 
begin with the Sierral. 

a. Diffusion within and from Sierral culture—Two major Sierral 
diffusions may be distinguished, one definitely tied up with the rise 
and spread of the Inca Empire, the other of less determinable prov- 
enance. In the two or three centuries prior to the coming of the 
Spaniards the Inca Empire developed and spread from around Cuzco 
to the north along the Andes as far as northern Ecuador and to the 
south as far as the Rio Maule in central Chile and along the eastern 
slope of the Andes to the Diaguita territory carrying with it a great 


18 Post-Columbian white influence: Nordenski6ld, 1919, pp. 232-234; 1920, pp. 119-126, 
197-202; 1930, ch. 7. Post-Columbian Negro influence: Nordenski6dld, 1930, ch. 7; Iziko- 
witz, 1935, p. 415. Pellet-bow: Nordenskiold, 1919, pp. 48-51, evidence for post-Columbian 
origin ; Friederici, 1920, p. 186, for pre-Columbian origin. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 44] 


* number of elements which we have previously listed as typical of the 
Sierral culture. (See fig. 2.) f 

Partly in pre-Columbian times (Inca and presumably pre-Inca), 
partly in post-Columbian times, many of the typical Sierral elements 
drifted south into Araucanian territory. Such elements include, to- 
gether with others of less importance, irrigation and possibly quinoa 
and the white potato, the domestication of the llama, wool weaving, 
certain pottery types, metal work in silver, and the quipu. In post- 
Columbian times prior to the middle of the eighteenth century the 
Araucanians deployed far out over the Pampas toward the Atlantic 
coast, carrying with them their culture, many elements of which 
through contact diffused well north and south of the central Pampas. 
Some time between the dates 1670 and 1741 this Araucanian influence 
profoundly modified the culture of the Tehuelche to the south of the 
Pampas proper as far as the southern limit of the Tehuelche territory 
at the Strait of Magellan. The culture of the Tehuelche as recorded 
in our 20 sources from 1520 to 1670 differed markedly from it as re- 
corded consistently from 1741 on, and the majority of the new elements 
are obviously of Araucanian origin.” 

Through trade and other contacts a good deal of Sierral culture has 
filtered down from the highlands into the adjacent wooded lower 
eastern slopes of the Andes. But in general only minor Sierral in- 
fluences, some of them at least recent post-Columbian, are discernible 
in the Silval and Marginal regions. Such in the Silval region are 
probably elements such as coca chewing, the feather fire-fan, and the 
Panpipe.2* Among the seemingly Sierral elements in Chaco culture 
are the feather fire-fan, games of chance, sandal and fillet, and certain 
textile and fictile patterns.” AJl in all, however, Sierral influence 
on the Amazonian and Chacoan peoples did not, so far as we can de- 
termine, very appreciably change their fundamental culture 
Whether in far distant prehistoric times agriculture with such arts as 
weaving and pottery had their origin in the Andean region and thence 
spread out over the Silval area, in this manner greatly changing an 
assumed earlier archaic collecting culture there, we are not in a 
position to say, nor probably will be unless or until the archeologist’s 
spade digs up decisive evidence. 

b. Diffusion within and from Silval cultwre.—Let us pass to the 
cultural diffusions stemming out from the Silval area. It is possible 
that in remote times the cultivation of manioc originated in the Silval 
belt east of the Andes and thence spread to the lowlands of the Sierral 


1% Means, 1931; Thompson, 1986. The Diaguita, higher culture was, however, at base 
independent of, and anterior to, Inca influence and domination. 

20 Cooper, 1924, pp. 406—410. 

21 Nordenskiéld, 1920, pp. 202—206 ; 1924, ch. 21 ; 1930, ch. 9. 

2 Nordenskidld, 1919, pp. 235-251 ; 1920, pp. 202-206 ; 1924, pp. 225-226. 


442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


CULTURE DIFFUSION ROUTES 


= PRE-INCA SIERRAL 

INCA 

ARAUCANIAN 

SIERRAL To CHACO 

TUPI TO MARGINAL BELT 

ARAWAK-CARIB TO 
WEST INDIES 


oka gy 


ome = EASTERN LIMIT OF 
SIERRAL CULTURE 

wome APPROXIMATE LIMIT OF 
SILVAL CULTURE 

m—~= SOUTHERN LIMIT OF 
HORTICULTURE 


FicuRE 2.—Tentatively reconstructed distribution of South American Sierral, 
Silval, and Marginal culture, as of circa A. D. 1000, and major cultural dif- 
fusions and drifts since then. Marginal enclaves within the Silval belt are 
not included in map. Araucanian territory is placed in the Marginal area, 
although horticulture may possibly have reached that far south by A. D. 1000. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 443 


region, but the evidence is far from decisive. As regards one minor 
and two major diffusions of Silval culture, we are on more secure 
ground. 

A minor drift or drifts brought into the Chaco certain Silval 
elements such as manioc horticulture, the manioc grater, wooden 
stools, hammocks, and the rubber ball for games.*° 

The first of the two major diffusions is that of the Arawakan 
peoples into practically the whole of the West Indies probably some 
centuries before the coming of the Spaniard, and later the invasion, 
still under way at the time of the discovery, of the Caribs across the 
Lesser Antilles as far as some of the nearer Greater Antilles islands. 
Whether or not the presence of typical South American Silval culture 
in southern Middle America represents migration or cultural intrusion 
into the area from South America cannot at present be decided. At 
any rate, most of the region of Middle America where culture similar 
to the South American Silval culture is found is, like the latter’s area 
of distribution, rain forest. 

The original centers of dispersion of the Arawak and Carib peoples 
cannot in the present state of our evidence be determined. With only 
rare exceptions the areas over which they have spread are areas of 
tropical rain forest. They have, it is true, occupied the smaller lower- 
Amazon savannas and part of the Brazilian highland savanna, but 
not, except in part, the more extensive savannas of the middle Orinoco, 
where in historic times at least have dwelt peoples of other linguistic 
stocks, such as the Otomac, Guahibo, Saliva, and the very primitive 
Yaruro. The Arawaks and the Caribs appear, in other words, to have 
shunned the open country and to have kept in the main to the deep 
forests. Some of the spread of Arawak and Carib culture within the 
forested area is pretty clearly a matter of relatively recent genera- 
tions—as e. g., in the case of the Schiriand and Waika, if we can rely 
on Koch-Griinberg.** Most of the Arawak and Carib spread must, on 
the other hand, go back to relatively remote prehistoric times. 

The Tupi, like the Arawak and Carib, have also kept pretty con- 
sistently to the forests. The earliest determinable center of dispersion 
seems more probably, since Métraux’ studies, and Klimek and Milke’s 
statistical analysis, to be the Amazon basin. Then well prior to the 
coming of the European they appear to have drifted down to the 
Paraguay-Parana and southern Brazilian region, the historic home 
of the Tupi-Guarani. At least it is mostly from these two centers on 
the Amazon and the Paraguay-Parana that the Tupi spread out along 
the southern bank of the lower Amazon, and along the Brazilian coast 
with almost no break from the mouth of the Amazon to the extreme 


23 Nordenskiéld, 1919, pp. 252-255 ; 1920, pp. 208-213. 
24 Koch-Griinberg, 1928, pp. 284-319 ; cf. M. Schmidt, 1917. 


444 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


southern Brazilian coast.2® Thus the Gé-speaking, Botocudo, and 
other Marginal peoples of the Brazilian highlands became almost en- 
tirely ringed by the Tupi, who brought with them into the forested 
areas wherever they went their typical Silval culture. The regional 
distribution of the Tupi as mapped by Métraux coincides almost per- 
fectly with the area of distribution of the tropical and subtropical 
rain forests that all but surround the eastern Brazilian and Matto 
Grosso highlands. 

Silval influence, in most cases mediated through the Tupi, has deeply 
penetrated into the Brazilian highlands and adjacent regions and has 
overlaid to differing depths the preexisting Marginal culture, leaving 
only areas here and there untouched or relatively untouched. To such 
Silval influence can be with reasonable confidence ascribed such ele- 
ments as horticulture, tobacco, intoxicants, the hammock, and so forth,” 
and possibly, although the question is still an open one, the basic pat- 
tern of the complex social organization revealed among the Borordé 
and by more recent studies among some at least of the Gé-speaking 
peoples such as the Apinayé, Canella, and Serente.27 Many of these 
element diffusions from Tupi sources can be well dated by historic 
documents as post-Columbian. Furthermore, from the scattered dis- 
tribution of these Silval traits in the area, from their seemingly imper- 
fect assimilation, and from the recency of much or most of the Tupi 
invasion of the area, Silval influence on the highland region appears 
to be in the main recent. All in all, then, we have good ground for 
concluding that the process of Silval diffusion into this Marginal 
region has been mostly a relatively late one, much of it known definitely 
to be post-Columbian and most of the rest probably dating back not 
many centuries prior to the coming of the European. 

The numerous migrations of Sierral and Silval peoples and cultures 
which we have briefly summarized in the preceding several pages are of 
course by their very nature chronologically later phenomena in the 
respective regions. Many of them are post-Columbian, most or all of 
the remaining ones are—some quite clearly, others very probably—of 
dates later than the one selected above, somewhat arbitrarily, that of 
circa A. D. 1000. At or about that date, the distribution of the three 
cultures—the Sierral, the Silval, and the Marginal—was much less 
broken and more regular than it was at the time of the Spanish con- 
quest or than it has been in more recent times (see fig. 2). At that 
more remote date, the Sierral culture without the Inca overlay occupied 
about the area where it was found at the time of the Discovery; the 


2% Métraux, 1927; Klimek and Milke, 1935, pp. 87-88. Cf. Nordenski6éld, 1917, on Chiri- 
guano migration across the northern Chaco to the forested foothills to the west thereof; 
more fully documented in Métraux, 1929b. 

23 Ploetz and Métraux, 1929. 

27 Haeckel, 1938—a valuable assembling of the factual evidence, but theory of ultimate 
Andean origin provisional only. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 445 


Silval culture, approximately where it Las been in recent times, in the 
Amazon-Orinoco watershed; the Marginal culture, the rest of the 
continent to the east, southeast, and south. In case, however, the Gé 
should turn out to be partly retrogressed Silvals, the dividing line be- 
tween the Silval and Marginal cultures would have to be drawn far- 
ther to the southeast than we have drawn it in figure 2. 


3. ABORIGINAL DIFFUSION AND SEQUENCE: Brrore Circa A. D. 1000 


We have so far blocked out certain important temporal sequences 
that have occurred within the last millennium. How far can we get 
toward determining such sequences prior to our date of circa A. D. 
1000? It is recognized of course that any such historic reconstruction 
on a continental scale must rest on probabilities rather than on cer- 
tainties. But at least it seems worth while to assemble and appraise 
such evidence as we have. We shall take up first the temporal relations 
of the Sierral to the Silval and Marginal, and after that the relations 
of the Silval to the Marginal. 

a. SIERRAL VERSUS SiLvAL AND Marcrnau.—That the higher pre-Inca 
culture or cultures of the Sierral region developed at a date later than 
did the Silval culture appears to rest on fairly solid ethnological and 
archeological evidence. Ethnologically these civilizations presuppose 
and are built upon well-advanced horticulture. And we have no good 
ground for assuming that horticulture developed in the Silval area 
prior to or at least appreciably prior to its development in the Andean 
area. A plausible case can even be made for the Sierral region as the 
birthplace or earliest area of origin of agriculture on the continent, 
although the claim may be disputed by Middle America or perhaps by 
the Silval region.** While archeologically the earlier Andean pre- 
Inca civilizations cannot, over most of the area, be shown to have 
been preceded by simple cultures of the Silval level, at two points at 
least in the area, Taltal and Arica, early and perhaps the earliest 
archeological horizons seem to show an even simpler one comparable 
to that of the nonhorticultural Marginal peoples.” 

b. Strvau versus Marcrnat—As regards the temporal relations of 
the Silval and Marginal cultures the evidence calls for a little more 
in the way of discussion. Theoretically the Marginal belt might con- 
ceivably represent a retrogressive break-down and offshoot of the Silval 
culture. Actually, the evidence seems to be accumulating that the 
Marginal culture is in reality a tarriant culture, earlier in point of 
time on the continent than the Silval. The evidence for this inference 
we shall now summarize and discuss—first and chiefly the cultural 

8 Cook, 1925 ; Mangelsdorf and Reeves, 1939; Sauer, 1939 ; Thompson, 1936, pp. 13-14. 


? Summary from earlier sources, in Cooper, 1924, p. 413; important recent excavations, 
‘in Bird, 1943. 


446 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION). 1943 


evidence from ethnology and archeology, then briefly the somatologi- 
cal and geographical evidence. Some of the cultural evidence is 
derived from a consideration of the data from South America alone; 
other, from consideration of pan-continental conditions, from North 
as well as South America. 

(1) Cultural evidence.—(a) South American.—That the Fuegian 
culture represents in the main such cultural tarriance from very early 
times seems reasonably clear. The evidence for this conclusion has 
been previously presented in detail by the present writer, a conclusion 
strengthened, it seems, by the archeological investigations of Lothrop: 
and Bird which indicate that the earliest inhabitants of the area had 
a culture seemingly even more simple than that of the modern 
Yahgan and Alacaluf, and of the Ona and their close cultural rela- 
tives, the Tehuelche of southern Patagonia. Furthermore the mod- 
ern culture of the Yahgan and Alacaluf in particular corresponds in 
many seemingly significant respects with the extremely simple culture 
determined archeologically on the earliest horizons at Taltal and 
Arica, well up the Chilean coast.*° 

That the Gé(?), Botocudo (Borun), Puri, Waitaka, and other Mar- 
ginals of eastern Brazil represent a survived archaic pre-Silval cul- 
ture in the region seems the most reasonable hypothesis to account for 
the evidence we have. The evidence for the region has been mar- 
shaled by Ploetz and Métraux, much of the evidence for the northern 
Gé, by Snethlage.** This conclusion, to which we have previously 
adverted, is drawn partly from the marked primitivity of the culture 
as compared with the Silval, and partly from the historically proved 
and reasonably inferred later intrusions of the Tupi and of Tupi 
culture into the area. 

We may also call attention in passing to the fact that, apart from 
the Carib Pimenteira and (Carib or independent stock) Kariri in the 
eastern part of the highlands, the Carib and Arawak tribes of the upper 
Xingu, the Arawak Guana and Tereno of the upper Paraguay—all of 
these last four on the far western borderlands of the highlands—and 
the Karaya of the Araguaya River, the Tupi are the only or almost 
the only people of horticultural or of typical Silval culture who border 
on and are intrusive into this whole great highland and savanna section 
of eastern Brazil.*? Lift Tupi peoples and Tupi influence from the 


30 Cooper, 1917, pp. 223-226; 1924, pp. 411-414; Lothrop, 1928, pp. 110-115, 178-197, 
198-212; Bird, 1988. The results, published since the above was in proof, of Bird’s more 
recent excavations along the north Chilean coast show, however, some important con- 
trasts between the earlier Chilean coastal cultures and the modern Yahgan and Alacaluf 
(Bird, 1948). 

31 Ploetz and Métraux, 1929, pp. 227-234; Snethlage, 1930. Among the foregoing 
peoples of eastern Brazil, the Gé may turn out to be partly retrogressed Silvals, to judge 
from the trend of the evidence within the last couple of years. 

2 Nimuendajii’s 1937 and 1942 unpublished maps of the area are our best and most com- 
plete ones. Cf. also maps previously listed in footnote 7. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 447 


area and there remains an almost unbroken vast region of nonhorticul- 
tural Marginal culture in the east from the lower Amazon to the La 
Plata. 

The Bororé likewise give every indication of being a fundamentally 
Marginal culture overlaid only lightly by Silval elements. The Tupi- 
speaking Guayaki in the midst of Tupi peoples but. with a culture 
sharply contrasting at almost every point with the Tupi, seem to be 
either remnants of prehorticultural Tupi or else a group later Tupi- 
ized as regards language but preserving a pre-Tupi culture. The 
Guat6 are somewhat problematical but both the archeological and the 
ethnological evidence suggests cultural tarriance in their case rather 
than retrogression. 

Upon the Chaco peoples have rained influences from east, north, and 
west, many of these influences certainly of post-Columbian date. The 
reasonable assumption is that in times prior thereto and not very re- 
mote the Chaco peoples were closely akin in culture to the Charrua 
of the Uruguayan plains and to the Puelche-Querandi of the Argen- 
tine Pampa. Moreover a considerable number of widespread Chaco 
cultural elements, such as skin clothing, the hairbrush, the sinew bow- 
string, suggest rather strongly cultural kinship with the peoples of 
the Pampas and Patagonian plateau to the south.** At any rate the 
peoples of the Chaco, of the Uruguayan plains and of the Pampas have 
a relatively very simple culture as compared with the more elaborate 
Silval culture, and there is no evidence whatever to suggest that this 
simplicity has been the result of cultural retrogression. 

Tt looks, too, as if the internally Marginal peoples scattered here 
and there in the Silval belt, or at least most of them, may be cultural 
tarriants from pre-Silval times. The marked simplicity of their culture 
contrasting sharply with that of the Silval, the absence of evidence of 
retrogression, except perhaps with the Mura, the scattered type of 
distribution, and, in some cases, specific historic evidence, all suggest 
that these peoples are earlier occupants of regions near where they 
now are, who have been driven forward, conquered, scattered, pene- 
trated, or surrounded, and in some cases profoundly influenced cul- 
turally and linguistically by later-coming Silval Arawak, Carib, and 
Tupi, as well as other peoples of Silval culture. Such is the view, from 
first-hand study in the field, of Koch-Griinberg, as regards the Schiri- 
ana, Waika, and Maku, although it is possible that what he took for 
definite recent historical tradition may have been legendary tribal 
lore. Some of these people, too, seem to differ somewhat somatologi- 


33 Nordenskiéld, 1919, pp. 259-261; Lathrop, 1932, pp. 188-189; Palavecino, 1934, p. 229. 

34 Koch-Griinberg, 1906a, p. 878; 1906b, pp. 180-181. 1922, pp. 226, 260-262, 265-266; 
1928, pp. 15-16, 284, 299-800, 307. Cf. Nordenskiéld, 1924, p. 233, Sirioné tribe “repre- 
sents perhaps a remnant of the original population” [of northeastern Bolivia]. 


448 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


cally from the surrounding peoples of Silval culture.* Certain cultural 
correspondences, too—such, for instance, as the extremely long bows 
found among the Sirioné and among many of the Brazilian highland 
Marginals—appear significant, and as far as they go, suggest Marginal 
tarriance with later Silval cultural intrusion. But our information on 
most of these internally Marginal groups is at present woefully frag- 
mentary. We may say in passing that perhaps no more urgent task in 
South American ethnology clamors for attention than that of thorough 
field investigation of these very simple peoples scattered here and 
there through the Silval belt. 

(b) Pan American evidence.—The foregoing South American evi- 
dence for the priority of the Marginal culture or cultures to the Silval 
is appreciably corroborated by the Pan American evidence. A very 
considerable number of specific and diagnostic cultural elements found 
in South America, particularly though not exclusively among the 
Marginal peoples, largely disappear in Silval South America and in 
Middle America, and then reappear in North America, and in a 
number of cases even in northeastern and northern Asia. 

Nordenskiéld first called attention to the phenomena and their 
probable significance nearly three decades ago. In his final paper on 
the subject published shortly before his death in 1932, he listed 64 
such elements. Krickeberg later barred or fused some of these but 
added about 25 others. Loeb, Schmidt, and von Hornbostel called 
attention to certain specific correspondences in puberty rites, religion, 
and musical style respectively. A number of striking resemblances in 
folk lore have been noted by Lowie, Métraux, and others.*° To the 
above lists the present writer can add about 15 or 20 further items. All 
in all, we have before us about 100 or more such North-South 
correspondences. 

Of these, some—such as family hunting territories or the use of 
skin garments, of crutchless paddles, of plank houses and plank boats— 
should best be left out of count, as they are not specific enough, or 
else may well be chance convergences, or convergent functions of 
similar natural environment or basic Wirtschaft in the far north and 
far south of the continent. Some few of them, too—such as scalping, 
the hollow rattle, sandals, the husking peg—may quite possibly be 
the result of independent diffusion from horticultural cultures. But 
a great many of them, probably a good majority, cannot seemingly be 


35 Koch-Griinberg, 1906a, p. 878; 1906b, p. 180. The Sirion6é are assumed by Eickstedt, 
1934, pp. 758, 855, so to differ, but such differences as exist may well be due to intrusions of 
white and Negro blood to which reference is made by Cardfis, 1886, p. 280. Cf. Outes, 1924. 
Definitive conclusions on the Sirion6 will have to await the completion of Allen Holmberg’s 
field study now in progress. 

30 Nordenskiéld, 1912a, 1931, pp. 6-15, 74, 77-94 (cf. same, 1926; 1930, pp. 163-165) ; 
Krickeberg, 1934; Loeb, 1931, pp. 532-533; W. Schmidt, 1929, pp. 1008-1033 ; von Horn- 
bostel, 1986 (cf. Danckert, 1937) ; Lowie, 1957, pp. 194-195 ; 1940a. pp. 421- 422; Métraux, 
1939 (cf. Palavecino, 1940) ; Luomala, 1942. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 449 


accounted for on any of the foregoing grounds. Such, for instance, 
are: Thread-tattooing; fire making by the percussion method ; sundial 
and inclined-stick traveling signs; the association of head-scratcher, 
drinking tube, hoof rattle, ashes (charcoal), foot race in early morn- 
ing, and gathering firewood with girls’ puberty rites; the remarkable 
grouping of games—hockey, lacrosse, ring-and-pin, hoop-and-pole, 
dart game, battledore, dart sticker, dice—in the Brazilian highlands 
and particularly in the Chaco; the perhaps still more striking oc- 
currence of a large number of very specific folk-lore motifs, especially 
in the Chaco. 

These very numerous and quite specific phenomena appear best 
accounted for on the hypothesis that the Marginal peoples of North 
and South America, or many of them, have retained much from a 
common cultural ancestry of archaic days prior to the rise and spread 
of the more advanced material arts on the continent. In other words 
the Marginal cultures of South America, or many of them, are more 
primitive than the Silval, in the sense that they in appreciable measure 
represent cultural tarriance with partial retention of pattern from 
times anterior to the development of the Silval. 

Added weight accrues to this inference from the fact that a certain 
number of these North-South correspondences—such as thread-tattoo- 
ing and the ring-and-pin game—are shared as well by some of the 
Marginals of northern Asia.** A certain amount of further support 
is derived from archeology—as for example, the consistent absence of 
head deformation and sporadic absence of the dog, among earlier 
populations, as among modern Marginals, of North or South America 
or both.* 

(2) Somatological evidence—Somatological data cannot as a rule 
be cited as evidence in the cultural court. But the fact that so many 
of the peoples of the Marginal belt appear more or less closely related 
physically to the earliest physical type so far recorded on the South 
American continent, does seem to corroborate, as far as it goes, the 
cultural evidence for the primitivity of the Marginal culture itself. 
So related physically to the ancient Lagoa Santa-sambaqui type are 
the modern Yahgan and Alacaluf together with the Ona and Tehuel- 
che, as also many at least of the living Marginal peoples of the 
Brazilian highlands, and some perhaps of the other Marginal peoples.” 

(3) Geographical evidence-—Geographically the externally Mar- 
ginal peoples are in the main in more remote areas of the continent, 
farthest removed from the doorways of ingress to the continent via 
Panama and the Antilles, and farthest removed by sheer distance as 


87 Birket-Smith, 1929, pt. 2, passim. 

88 On absence of head deformation, cf. Stewart, 1940; Nordenskiéld, 1931, p. 73; Imbel- 
loni, 1934 ; Lovén, 1935, pp. 488—490 ; Harrington, 1921, vol. 2, p. 386. 

*%” Hrdlitka, 1912, pp. 179, 183 ; Eickstedt, 1934, p. 7T56—759. 


450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


well as by natural barriers from the cultural influences of the advanced 
civilizations of the continent. Most of the internally Marginal peoples 
are likewise in remoter “refuge” areas of the tropical rain forest. 


4. THE QUESTION or OLD Worip INFLUENCE 


Within the limits of a short paper like the present, which has 
already gone far beyond the length originally planned, it is not 
possible to enter into a detailed review of the evidence bearing on 
this supercomplicated problem. And unless the evidence pro and 
con is discussed in minute detail and against a pan-continental 
and even world-wide background, discussion of it is all but futile. 
The ablest treatment of it which has yet appeared is, to the present 
writer’s best judgment, that by Nordenskidld, to which the reader 
is referred for details.*? Without entering into the minutiae of the 
controversy and merely to fill out some of the main lines of culture 
sequence in South America, we shall confine ourselves to the briefest 
statement of the conclusions which, in the view of Nordenskiéld and 
of most of us interested in the problem, seem to follow from such 
evidence as we have. 

The earliest prehistoric human migrants from northeastern Asia 
to the American continent brought with them their heritage of Old 
World “paleolithic” culture. Beyond, however, this initial heritage 
from Old World culture, there appears no convincing or even good 
probable evidence for appreciable accretions in pre-Columbian days 
to South American culture through the migration from the Old 
World either of peoples or of cultures, whether by a northern route 
across Bering Strait or the vicinity thereof or by a southern route 
across the Pacific. 

Our evidence regarding an element here and there, such as the 
sweetpotato, the calabash, or the coconut, makes plausible—though 
far from proved—the assumption of sporadic pre-Columbian cultural 
contacts between Oceania and South America.*t But the inference 
that there has been notable or basic pre-Columbian Old World in- 
fluence upon South American culture, as maintained by the Helio- 
lithic and Kulturkreis schools,‘? seems to rest on extremely weak 
positive evidence and furthermore to be in conflict at scores of crucial 
points with our massive ethnological and archeological evidence. 
The resemblances on which these two schools mosily rest their re- 
spective cases seem far too few, too scattered, and too vague to justify 
conclusions of large-scale diffusion from the Old World to the New by 


40 Nordenski6ld, 1931, pp, 16—53. 

“1 Nordenskiéld, 1931, pp. 27-30; Dixon, 1932; cf. Cook, 1910. 

4W. Schmidt, 1913; Smith, 1929. Cf. critiques in: Dixon, 1928, chap. 7 and passim; 
Lowie, 1937, chaps. 10-11. For most recent exposition of Rivet’s theories of Oceanic 
influence in aboriginal South America, see Rivet, 1943. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 451 


the Oceanian or any other route. Apart from the initial “paleolithic” 
(in the sense of “prehorticultural”) inheritance, apart from a pos- 
sible stray pre-Columbian accretion here and there, and apart from 
obvious post-Columbian influences, the culture of aboriginal South 
America gives every indication of being home-grown. 


SUMMARY 


In attempting to discover and reconstruct the broad lines of cul- 
tural sequence on the South American continent we have resorted 
to the stripping process, following reverse chronological order. 

Since the coming of the white man, four-and-a-half centuries ago, 
a large group of important elements of European provenance, and a 
very limited group of minor elements of Negro origin, have spread 
widely over the continent or parts thereof. 

Since our more or less arbitrary date of about A. D. 1000 or since, 
in round numbers, about a millennium ago, a half-dozen major cul- 
tural diffusions or drifts have occurred—the Inca and _ pre-Inca 
within the Andean area, from the Southern Andean (Araucanian) 
out into the Pampean and Patagonian, from the Silval (mostly 
Tupi) into and around the Brazilian highlands, and (Arawak- 
Carib) into the West Indies—and other minor diffusions, such as 
those from the Silval and Sierral into the Chaco, from the Sierral 
into the Silval, and a great number, not dealt with in the present 
paper, of more localized ones within the Sierral, Silval, and Marginal 
respectively. 

Earlier, perhaps around the beginning of the Christian Era or 
maybe long before, came the beginnings of horticulture in the Silval 
or Sierral area or both, and together with associated or subsequent 
more advanced material arts and divergent social and religious 
structures and usages spread out over the western, northern, and cen- 
tral regions of the continent, penetrating to about the limits of the 
arable land in the Sierral area and of the tropical and subtropical 
rain forests of the Silval. These cultural drifts, however, left rela- 
tively untouched the cultures of the great eastern and southern open- 
country belt, and seemingly, too, a number of archaic cultural islands 
here and there within the Silval area as represented by the internally 
Marginal peoples still surviving there, and even within the Sierral 
as represented by the coastal Chango. 

Still earlier, between the remote first migration or migrations of 
man to the continent—perhaps 10,000 to 25,000 years ago—and the 
beginnings of aboriginal American horticulture, the original 
“paleolithic” culture of these earlier immigrants was carried by them 
over all or most of both North and South America as they deployed 
out over forest and open country, highlands and lowlands. Some of 


452 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the very early culture, perhaps even of the earliest, survived, and 
has been retained down to the present. Much or most of it suffered 
more than a sea change, in the process of adjustment to varying new 
external environments and under the impulsion of internal forces. 


TENTATIVE PREHISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION 


Before bringing this paper to a close, it seems worth while, at the 
risk of some repetition but in the interests of clarity, to give a résumé 
in chronological order of what, for purposes of discussion, has been 
dealt with in inverse temporal order. In doing so we are venturing 
to fill out the picture a little by adding a few details only implicitly 
or incidentally touched upon in the preceding pages. Some of these 
details in the following attempted reconstruction of the broad lines 
of culture growth on the South American continent—and in a certain 
sense the basic reconstruction itself—must of necessity, in view of the 
many lacunae in our evidence, be tentative and provisional only. 
Workers in the natural sciences take for granted that it is legitimate 
to formulate provisional theories, if only as working hypotheses. 
Why may not the cultural anthropologist do the same, provided he 
keeps reasonably close to his evidence and proposes his reconstructions 
as provisional only and not as established verities? There is a via 
media between giving free rein to fancy and speculation and setting 
up tentative hypotheses to be tested. 

The long-headed earlier peoples of the South American continent 
must have reached it from North America either by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama or across the Antilles route. How many thousand years 
ago this occurred there is no very definite evidence for concluding— 
possibly only the 4,000 which Spinden allows, perhaps some thousands 
of years earlier as suggested by our linguistic data, and by some of 
the more recent archeological evidence for South as well as North 
America.** 

Man on his arrival in South America had in all probability a very 
simple culture without agriculture, weaving, or pottery, without alco- 
holic intoxicants or tobacco, and, judging from its earlier absence 
from the extreme southern tip of the continent and its modern absence 
from a great many other peoples of the Marginal and Silval belts, quite 
possibly, too, without the dog. Fire in the early stages was more 
likely by the percussion method as well as by the drill. Boiling with 
hot stones was practiced. Body painting and depilation went along 
with the use of the brush comb. Head deformation was lacking. The 
autonomous politico-economic unit was the small band, mostly com- 
posed of kin, each band with its own more or less circumscribed sover- 
eign territory. Sibs, moieties, age classes, marked social stratification, 


48 Spinden, 1937 ; Bird, 1938 ; Roberts, 1940. 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 453 


and powerful chieftaincy were probably absent, although there is some 
question regarding moieties and age classes in view of the recent Gé 
evidence. The family was the basic social unit, polygamous or pre- 
valently monogamous in form, with probably some strict or fairly 
strict monogamy in groups here and there. Esthetic culture was 
weakly developed; recreative, very slightly organized. Religion was 
most probably a combination of shamanistic, magical, animistic, and 
theistic concepts and practices, with relatively less manism. The prob- 
able later derivation of the hollow rattle from the Silval culture and 
the actual absence of rattles of any kind south of the Strait of Magellan 
suggest that the rattle, at least the hollow rattle, was not part of 
the earliest magico-religious culture. 

The marked dominance of weapons like the sling, club, spear, and 
spear thrower over most of the Andean area to Cape Horn contrasting 
broadly with the dominance of the bow and arrow and unheaded club 
over most of the area east of the Andes, seems to point toward two 
great more or less independent cultural drifts in the western and east- 
ern regions of the continent, drifts which may well date back to 
remote archaic times. 

For some hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years the South 
American continent was occupied by peoples of such simple culture as 
has been above outlined, a culture partly preserved in varying degrees 
until the present or until very recent times here and there in the Sierral 
and Silval regions, and over most of our open-country belt. During, 
however, these centuries or millennia countless major and minor local 
and tribal cultural divergences developed within this pre-horticultural 
pattern. 

At the latest during the first millennium B. C. and perhaps much 
earlier, came the beginnings of horticulture, together with more or 
less sedentary village life, alcoholic intoxicants and tobacco, weaving, 
pottery, and other more advanced material arts. Whether horticulture 
first reached South America via the Isthmus from Middle America, 
or originated independently south of the Isthmus, is an open question, 
although some of our recent evidence seems to be a little more favor- 
able to the theory of South American origin. Middle America’s claim 
to be the birthplace of maize cultivation is being sharply challenged. 
Then, too, at least some weight is given to Peru’s claim to priority from 
the marked variety of plants, about 70 in all, cultivated there in pre- 
Discovery times. Or else the domestication of plants on the southern 
continent may have begun as root-tuber horticulture, with perhaps 
white potatoes in the central Sierral region, or with manioc somewhere 
in the Silval. 

In any case, waiving as still sub judice the question of the exact 
locality or localities of its origin, horticulture in South America 

566766—44—30 


454 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


seems to have later diffused in two main streams: one, carrying chiefly 
maize, beans, and white potatoes until it covered the western belt 
from Colombia to Chiloé; a second one carrying chiefly manioce and 
beans until it extended over the great rain forests of the Orinoco- 
Amazonian region and flooded out over the Antilles. 

At later dates, mostly after our more or less arbitrary one of A. D. 
1000 and in many sections even after the coming of the white man, 
this basically manioc culture spread around and deeply penetrated 
into the eastern Brazilian and Matto Grosso highlands, diffused into 
parts of the Chaco, and swept over many of the savannas within and 
adjacent to the tropical rain forests—areas until then occupied by 
nonhorticultural Marginal peoples. 

In general, it looks as if the typical larger groups of the Silval belt— 
especially the Carib, Arawak, and Tupi—pretty consistently kept 
in their spread to the tropical and subtropical rain forests, penetrated 
to the limit thereof, and stopped short at the savannas and grasslands. 
They stayed in the deep forests and avoided the open country. Even 
the ‘Tupi-speaking Chiriguano on their western trek out of the Para- 
guay country across the Chaco, settled, not in the open Chaco region, 
but in the forested foothills and lowlands bordering thereon. 

For the beginnings of the high civilizations of the Sierral region, 
archeology has so far yielded us no well-established dates, nor has it 
determined definitively how much of this more advanced culture may 
have had its origin north of the Isthmus. Such facts as we have can 
be fitted comfortably within the assumption that Sierral civilization, 
with its advanced weaving, pottery, metallurgy, megalithic architec- 
ture, and political institutions—to mention only a few of its outstand- 
ing characteristics—does not date in its origin or origins beyond the 
beginning of the Christian Era. At least there is no specific evidence 
for an earlier date. 

Assuming, albeit with reserves, an origin or origins of Sierral civili- 
zation around the first centuries of the Christian Era, this pre-Inca 
higher culture developed and flourished for about a millennium. 

Then, somewhere between about A. D. 1100 and A. D. 1300 came the 
rise of Inca imperialism which, during the generations immediately 
preceding the coming of the Spaniard, carried its truculent conquests 
as well as its characteristic culture from around Cuzco to the north 
as far as northern Ecuador, to the south as far as the Rio Maule in 
middle Chile, and out into the Diaguita country in northwestern 
Argentina. 

Apart from this main area of diffusion of earlier Andean and later 
Inca civilization, Sierral culture in diluted form spread to the Arau- 
canians of middle and southern Chile, partly in pre-Columbian times, 
partly in post-Columbian. In post-Discovery days, this diluted An- 
dean culture was carried by the Araucanians far to the east of the 


ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 455 


southern Andes—by the middle of the eighteenth century, through 
actual Araucanian invasion, to the peoples of the Pampa, and, some- 
time between 1670 and 1741, through Araucanian contacts, to the 
Tehuelche of Patagonia as far south as the Strait of Magellan. 

Such in brief appear to be the broad lines of aboriginal South 
American cultura] evolution, as far as our available somatological, 
linguistic, ethnological, archeological, and historical evidence reveals 
them. Some of this reconstruction is derived from dated historical 
documents. Much of it rests on evidence that yields temporal infer- 
ences of from reasonable to high probability. But on many points our 
data are pathetically meager, and the provisional reconstruction we 
have ventured to propose will in all likelihood have to be revised not 
only in many of its details but also in some of its major lines long be- 
fore the several kindred disciplines concerned shall have gleaned their 
last fact and spoken their last word. 


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ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 459 


NIMUENDAJG, C.—Continued. 
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460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


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ABORIGINAL SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURE—COOPER 461 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cooper PLATE 1 


SILVAL PHYSICAL TYPES. 
Upper left, headman of the Naravute, a tribe of the upper Xing River region, eastern Brazil. (Courtesy 
Vincenzo Petrullo.) 


Upper right, boy of the Yagua tribe, of northeastern Peru, with decorative face painting and palm-fiber 
forehead band and ‘‘bib.”’ (Courtesy Paul Fejos.) 


Lower, Yagua mother and child. Courtesy Paul Fejos.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cooper PLATE 2 


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FOOD. 

Upper, Wapisiana women of British Guiana grating cassava (Manihot utilissima) root, preparatory to 
squeezing out the juice which contains poisonous hydrocyanic acid. (Courtesy The University Museum, 
Philadelphia, Pa.) 

Lower, Aymara gardening terraces at Ichu, Peru, in sierral territory. (Courtesy Alfred Kidder II.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cooper PLATE 3 


SHELTER AND CONSTRUCTION. 


Upper, beehive hut of the marginal Yahgan, of the Magellanic Archipelago, the southernmost people of 
the world, now nearly extinet. (From Hyades and Deniker.) 
Middle, half-completed dwelling of the silval Naravute, upper Xingti River, eastern Brazil, showing heavy 
timber framework. (Courtesy Vincenzo Petrullo.) 
Lower, ancient part-ruined chulpas, used as burial places, at Kacha Kacha, Peru, showing a type of sierral 
dressed-stone construction. (Courtesy Harry Tschopik.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Cooper PLATE 4 


THE LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE. 


Upper, a wrestling match, among the marginal Bororé, of Matto Grosso, Brazil. (Courtesy Vincenzo 
Petrullo.) 
Lower, Yagua boy, of northeastern Peru, with pet monkeys. (Courtesy Paul Fejos.) 


ORIGIN OF FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS: 
A BRIEF HANDBOOK? 


By CarL WHITING BisHoP 
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution 


[With 12 plates] 


INTRODUCTION 
AIMS AND METHODS OF STUDY 


Anthropology is that science which studies man in connection with 
his environment, physical, social, and economic. But to this end we 
must also lay under contribution many of its sister sciences, notably 
those of geology, climatology, biology, and history; for these too can 
throw light on various aspects of our problem—the career of mankind 
in ancient eastern Asia. The cultural significance of that part of the 
globe, moreover, like that of every other, can only be rightly under- 
stood if we view it in relation to the cultures of neighboring areas; 
while the growth of civilization there must, as always, be interpreted 
in terms both of time and of space. 


CHINA 


Physical environment.—As a preliminary survey, we need to know 
in at least its main outlines the geography of China; since it was there 
that our particular phase of the great human drama began (Cressey, 
1934, passim; Latourette, 1934, vol. 1, ch. 1). 

As a glance at a map or, better still, a terrestrial globe will show, 
the area in question occupies a position marginal or peripheral to 
the Near East—the region where, as we now know, civilization first 
developed. Ever since fairly remote geologic times, however, these 
widely sundered areas have been linked by two great land routes or 
thoroughfares of migration and travel, vegetable, animal, and human. 
(See map. fig.1). These pass in a generally east-and west direction to 
the north and to the south, respectively, of the lofty tableland of Tibet. 
The former route, that on the north, has in general played far the more 


1 Reprinted from Smithsonian War Background Studies, No. 1, Publ. 3681, June 10, 1942. 
The author died June 16, 1942. 


463 


464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


important role in human history; but the latter, known in part as the 
now famous Burma Road, has come into renewed prominence of late. 

The sea route between the Occident and the Far East did not come 
into use until much later, well on in the historical period—not, in fact, 
until sails and seagoing ships had long been known in the Near East. 

Surface features—Northern China is preeminently a vast, low- 
lying alluvial plain, bordered by the sea on the one hand, on the other 
by rugged areas that form the scarp of the central Asian plateau. The 
Ch‘in-ling chain of hills—dwindling outliers of the mighty K‘un-lun 
Mountains of inner Asia—divides the basin of the Huai River from 
that of the Yangtze and forms a faunal, botanical, and historical 
boundary of great importance. 


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Figure 1.—The “steppe corridor” and the Far East. 


Southern China, on the contrary, is in general hilly—in parts even 
mountainous; but its elevations do not form continuous, well-defined 
ranges. 

Loess soil.—Over much of northern China, and extending far into 
central Asia, lies a thick mantle of loess soil (likewise found in other 
parts of the world, as for instance in many of our western States and 
portions of Europe). This type of soil, of a fine powdery consistency 
and grayish yellow in hue, is divided by geologists into two varieties, 
primary (eolian) and secondary (alluvial) loess. Of these, the first 
was deposited by the wind, in the form of dust, during the (geologically 
speaking) Recent epoch, since the close of the last ice age; while the 
second, a derivative of the first, has been laid down by water (which in 
this way, for example, created the great North China plains just 

mentioned). (Cressey, 1934, pp. 184-189 and passim; Anderson, 1934, 
_ passim.) 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 465 


Rivers and lakes.—In northern China the rivers are “young” (again 
in the geologic sense) and are therefore subject to devastating floods. 
By far the largest is the Huang Ho or Yellow River, sometimes called 
“China’s Sorrow” on account of the terrible loss of life which it often 
causes. This stream rises in northeastern Tibet and is 2,500 miles in 
length. Too shallow and swift to be an important waterway, it has 
often altered its lower course ; the most recent of these changes occurred 
less than a century ago. South of it flows the Huai River, much 
shorter, and the mouth of which has for the past few hundred years 
been cut off by the Grand Canal, so that it no longer flows directly 
into the sea. 

The rivers of southern China, on the other hand, are “mature” in 
character, with deep, well-defined channels. The most important is 
the Yangtze, second in size and volume only to the Amazon, in South 
America. Like the Yellow River, it too rises in northeastern Tibet, 
and flows in a general easterly direction for 3,200 miles before it 
reaches the sea, near the present city of Shanghai. Its value as a high- 
way of commerce is very great, and oceangoing steamers are able to 
ascend it for over 600 miles. In the early historical period it entered 
the sea through a delta with three mouths, now reduced to one. 

The river systems of southeastern China are nearly all short and 
coastal, few of them extending back into the interior of China. There 
are likewise, especially in the center and north of the country, nu- 
merous lakes, some shallow and subject to seasonal fluctuations of out- 
line, while others are deeper and more permanent in character. 

Flora and fauna—tThe great plains of northern China were before 
the dawn of history probably open grassland, with belts of timber 
along the streams and on the watersheds—much like our American 
prairies in aboriginal times. The Yangtze Basin and southern China 
in general, on the other hand, seem to have been covered with luxuriant 
subtropical forest continuous with that clothing Indo-China and much 
of India, and not unlike the one that once occupied the southeastern 
part of North America. . 

There are in eastern Asia two main zoological provinces, a northeru 
and a southern. The boundary between these today extends, roughly, 
along the southern border of the Yangtze Basin; but in ancient times 
it ran at least as far north as the latitude of Peiping.? 

Hence as late as the second millennium B. C. China had, even in 
the north, many large forms, such as the elephant, the rhinoceros, and 
the water buffalo, now living only in regions much farther south. 

Eastern Asia was, in fact, during ancient times (before human activ- 
ity had yet had time to produce its usual destructive effect) a region 
teeming with very many forms of wildlife, both animal and vegetable. 


2This parallel, of very nearly 40° N. latitude, passes through northern California and 
central New Jersey on our side of the globe. 


466 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Among these, numerous species in both the animal and the vegetable 
kingdoms were closely related to others that we look on as especially 
characteristic of the New World. For instance, the only parts of the 
globe where the true alligator occurs today are North America and a 
small area on the Yangtze River. Many other examples of like nature 
might be cited. 

There was—and still is—a bird life wonderfully rich in both number 
of individuals and variety of species, the latter including terrestrial, 
arboreal, and aquatic forms. 

Climate-—The controlling factor in the climate of China—of all 
southeastern Asia, in fact—is the alternating occurrence of the mon- 
soon winds and their influence on precipitation (Cressey, 1934, pp. 60- 
64 and passim). The summer monsoon, blowing steadily from the 
south, off the equatorial ocean, is warm and moist, whereas the winter 
monsoon, from the interior of the continent, is dry and bitterly cold. 
These distinctions are very marked, and their effect is to divide the 
year rather sharply into a hot, rainy summer and a cold, dry winter. 

The Middle and Late Pleistocene periods, when the vast deposits of 
loess soil were being slowly formed, seem in general to have been much 
drier than now but to have been followed, during late prehistoric and 
early historic times, by an interval of rather greater rainfall and 
warmth than are found in northern China today. The general tend- 
ency for at least the past 1,500 years seems to have lain in the direction 
of growing aridity, interspersed with somewhat wetter phases. All 
these climatic fluctuations have influenced human activity in countless 
ways, the effects of which are still clearly visible. 


ADJACENT LANDS 


Northwest of China proper are the lofty plateau of Tibet and that 
nexus of mountain ranges forming the Pamirs, the “Roof of the 
World.” North and northeast of China extend the elevated plains 
of Mongolia and Manchuria, wooded on the east, bare and tending 
more and more to aridity on the west. Other lands—Indo-China, 
Korea, and numerous great island groups—lie to the west, south, and 
east. All these, together with China itself, form that part of the 
globe which we know collectively as the Far East. The region is one 
that is playing an increasingly large and important part in world 
history, as we all realize. 


PRIMITIVE MAN 


RACES OF EARLY MAN 


It is still undetermined exactly where the human race originated, 
although we may at least be sure that it did so in the Old World, not 
in the New. Recent discoveries have revealed, however, that numer- 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 467 


ous forms of man once existed, but that all save the one found 
today—Homo sapiens—eventually became extinct (Abbot et el., 1938, 
passim). 

“PEKING MAN” 


About one of these very early human types—whether or not di- 
rectly ancestral to modern man is still disputed—we have been hear- 
ing much of late. This is the primitive creature commonly called 
“Peking man” (Sinanthropus pekinensis), which lived around the 
very beginning of the Pleistocene period, variously estimated at from 
250,000 to 1,000,000 years ago. 


MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE 


During the past few years also, traces of men of the Old Stone Age 
or Paleolithic period have come to light in eastern Asia, as, for in- 
stance, in northwestern China proper and on the borders of Mon- 
golia. These people lived much later but still as early as the begin- 
ning of the deposition of the loess, not less than from 10,000 to 
20,000 years ago. From this time onward until late prehistoric times 
there is a great gap in our knowledge of man in eastern Asia. Pos- 
sibly he did not exist there at all then, the climate following the ice 
age being too unfavorable to permit living in that part of the globe 
by people still in a food-gathering (as opposed to a food-producing) 
stage of culture. 


MORE RECENT RACES 


NEGROID TYPES 


In times much less remote from our own but still long before his- 
tory began, southern Asia and some of the islands off its coast seem 
to have been inhabited by two dark-skinned races, one of pygmies, 
the other of a taller people, perhaps akin to the Papuans of New 
Guinea or to the aborigines of Australia. This second race, some 
students have suspected, once extended its influence northward as far 
as Japan, there to contribute to the formation of the Ainu, still 
found in some of the northern islands of that archipelago. 


A CAUCASOID TYPE 


Somewhat later but still far back in prehistoric times, southeastern 
Asia and many of the East Indian islands seem to have been over- 
run by a brown-skinned race of Caucasoid type, perhaps distantly 


* Of these pygmies, a few scattered remnants still exist, in the Malay Peninsula, the 
Andaman Islands, the Philippines, and elsewhere; and they are mentioned in old Chinese 
records. The larger Negroid race was perhaps best represented by the (recently) extinct 
Tasmanians, 


468 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


related to the “Mediterraneans” of the west. This type may still be 
seen entering into the composition of the present population of the 
area; thus travelers often mention seeing individuals there with the 
aspect of southern Europeans. 


MON-KHMER STOCK 


The Mongoloid or yellow-brown variety of man seems to have be- 
come specialized somewhere in central Asia and to have spread 
thence outward, toward the sea. The first traceable members of this 
race in the Far East seem to have belonged to the Mon-Khmer 
linguistic stock, still found in many parts of southern Asia. They 
spread (or were driven) southward until they occupied much of 
southern China, Indo-China, parts of India, and apparently some 
of the islands. Physically they are shorter and darker than Mon- 
goloid man in general, possibly on account of very early admix- 
ture with the pygmies already mentioned. 


SINO-T‘AI STOCK 


Probably a good deal later than the Mon-Khmers came the 
speakers of the Sino-T‘ai family of languages (to which, re- 
spectively, belong the Chinese and the Siamese). These two groups 
of speech are very closely related to each other, and this may account 
in part for the success of the Chinese emigrants to Siam.+ 

The Chinese ancestral stock spread, at some prehistoric time, over 
northern China (roughly, the Yellow River Basin), while the T‘ai 
speakers occupied much of the Yangtze Valley. Southern China and 
Indo-China became more especially the home of the Mon-Khmers.® 

Throughout the historical period, various forms of Chinese speech 
have been steadily supplanting both T‘ai and Mon-Khmer in south- 
ern China or have driven them into Indo-China. 


TIBETO-BURMAN STOCK 


Yet another linguistic family, the Tibeto-Burman, is related to the 
Sino-T‘ai group, although less closely than are the two branches of the 
latter to each other. As their name indicates, languages of the Tibeto- 
Burman family are today spoken mainly in Tibet and in Burma; but 
in ancient times they extended over much of northwestern China, and 
remnants of them still exist there. Physically this stock is very 
variable, though essentially Mongoloid in character. 


4The Siamese like to call themselves the T‘ai (or, less correctly, Thai) ; but they are by 
no means the only people speaking a T‘ai language. 

5 All the groups of whom we are now speaking are today much alike in physical aspect, 
their distinguishing marks being more especially matters of speech, costume, and custom. 
This applies in very large measure also to the Japanese. 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 469 
NEOLITHIC PERIOD 


Characteristics —This stage of culture is characterized by the use 
of ground and polished stone for tools and implements, but it also 
marks a really tremendous step in man’s progress; for it was then that 
he became a producer of food instead of depending, as he had always 
done hitherto, on what he could find for his nourishment, whether 
animal or vegetable. It was then that he began to domesticate various 
kinds of animals (except the dog, already associated with man far 
earlier) and different food plants. 

This Neolithic phase of culture prevailed over practically the entire 
globe, only disappearing from different areas as civilization slowly 
diffused itself. This was true of eastern Asia as of every other region ; 
thus the Ainu of the Kurile Islands, northeast of Japan proper, re- 
mained in that stage until well into the nineteenth century. 

About the Neolithic period in western and southern China we as yet 
know little, for not a great deal of archeological work has been done 
there. Of that of northern China, Korea, and Japan, we know 
much more. The Neolithic inhabitants of these regions seem nowhere 
to have been pastoral nomads but invariably semisedentary planters. 
It is also interesting to note that in northern China at least the skeletal 
evidence shows the prehistoric population to have been directly an- 
cestral to the present one. 

Like the Neolithic culture of much of eastern Asia was the one that 
we find in northern China (Bishop, 1932a). There, however, it disap- 
peared, or perhaps more accurately was submerged, under a developed 
civilization of Bronze Age type, with a knowledge of metal, consid- 
erably sooner than was the case in many adjacent lands. In parts of 
Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, and Japan, for example, Neolithic 
cultures survived until the Christian Era and even longer. 

In northern China this cultural phase spread over the entire country 
save for areas subject to seasonal inundation or too heavily timbered 
for easy clearing with stone tools. There as elsewhere (for instance 
in Europe), the Neolithic peasants sought more especially lands cov- 
ered with loess soil, as being at once more fertile than others and less 
densely overgrown with trees and brush. 

Habitations—Habitations in northern China, as in so many other 
northern lands during this stage of progress, were pit dwellings or 
earth lodges, roughly circular in form and beehive-shaped, usually with 
a depth and diameter of around 10 feet, and entered from the top. 
(See pl. 2.) 

The Chinese character Asiieh, now meaning a den or cave, in its 
ancient form clearly represents a vertical section of such a pit dwelling, 
with its domed and timbered roof (fig. 2). Archeology has in this in- 
stance, as in so many others, confirmed the evidence of epigraphy. 

566766—44—31 


470 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


During the warmer months, which comprised the period of growth 
and also the rainy season, these pit dwellings seem to have been 
temporarily deserted for huts built in trees or on piles and aptly likened 
to “nests,” situated near the cultivated patches. 

No signs of fortification of any sort have been found; and in general 
the Neolithic peoples, in northern China at least, seem not to have been 
very warlike. 

Villages of these underground huts were not occupied continuously 
over very many years. On the contrary, as soon as the soil of the vi- 
cinity had lost its fertility through the wasteful mode of cultivation 
then used, and which included clearing the ground with the aid of 
fire, villages were shifted to other localities with unexhausted soil. 

Tillage —Cultivation was probably carried on in common, perhaps 
mainly by the women for magical reasons connected with the idea of 
fertility. The implements used were digging sticks, hoes, mattocks, 
sickles, and perhaps spades, shod with stone or shell. (See pl. 3, fig. 1, 
and fig. 3.) The staple crop was common millet (Panicum mitlia- 


Va 


Ficure 2.—Modern and ancient forms of Chinese character for hsiieh 
(a den or pit dwelling). 


ceum), and many mullets and mealing stones, used in preparing this 
grain for human consumption, have been found. Rice also was being 
grown in the Yellow River basin in Neolithic times; and there is some 
slight (though doubtful) indication that sorghum (kaoliang or giant 
millet— now an important food crop) was also known then. 

Beer, brewed from millet and perhaps also from rice, may likewise 
have been made. The method used in early times to set up fermenta- 
tion was that of chewing the grain and then steeping it in water. 

Animal husbandry.—In its variety of domestic animals during this 
cultural stage, China was far poorer than was the Occident. The lat- 
ter then had the ox, sheep, goat, pig, and dog. China, on the other 
hand, had only the two last, though toward the close of the period the 
ox, sheep and goats, and even the horse may have appeared (the horse, 
however, perhaps not as a domestic animal). 

Implements and clothing—Supplies of the right kind of stone for 
making tools and implements have always been of vital importance to 
Neolithic man everywhere. The most common implement in China, as 
in other lands, was the ground and polished stone celt, which occurs in 
two forms, the ax and the adz. A rectangular or semilunar stone 
knife had a very wide distribution, being found not only in northern 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 471 


China but also in Siberia, Japan, and even as far afield as among the 
Eskimo. (See fig. 3.) 

Arrow points were of stone, bone, and shell; and picks of deer antler 
similar to ones found in Europe also occur. Spindle whorls of clay or 
stone and perforated needles of bone show that at least sewing was 
known, and perhaps weaving also, for impressions of cloth on certain 
ancient Chinese potsherds may possibly date back to Neolithic times. 
Bark cloth like the Polynesian tapa seems also to have been made; and 
during the cold season furs were undoubtedly worn. 


Fiaure 38.—Mattock and knives of stone, northwestern China. 


Pottery.—Pottery was well known in eastern Asia during this cul- 
ture phase. Broadly speaking, it falls into two great categories, a 
northern and a southern, the former usually ornamented in various 
ways, the latter most often plain. 

The northern family is itself divisible into two classes. Of these, 
one is a coarse gray ware, sherds of which are found all over northern 
China and are closely akin to the pottery of the neighboring areas. 
Hand-made, often by the coiling process, it appears in a wide variety 
of forms. Ornamentation is incised, impressed, punctate, or applied, 
and the ware itself is as a rule poorly fired. 


472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The other sort of northern ware, far finer in texture and apparently, 
in some instances at least, made on some rudimentary form of potter’s 
wheel, likewise displays a wide range of shapes, which as a rule differ 
from those of the foregoing type. This finer ware occurs more espe- 
cially along the great migration route from Chinese Turkistan across 
northern China to southern Manchuria. Varying in hue from a light 
bluff to a dark reddish brown, it is as a rule highly burnished; some- 
times it bears simple geometric designs in color, most likely with some 
magical or symbolic meaning. 

Both types of ware occur together, however, and seem to have been 
made by the same people. The Chinese burnished pottery gradually 
deteriorated and finally died out before the dawn of history. Not so, 
however, with the coarse gray ware; for this kept on being made, at 
least by the peasantry, until well within the Christian Era. 

In northern and especially northeastern China there has also recently 
come to light a very fine black pottery, somewhat later than the kind 
just discussed. It was, however, still Neolithic; for no metal has been 
found with it. Its exact significance is not yet clearly understood. 

Trade.—Trade seems to have been little developed in China then, 
for given communities were self-sustaining. No particular demand 
for imports had as yet arisen. Cowry shells from the southern sea- 
coasts and obsidian (volcanic glass) for certain implements must have 
been traded from considerable distances; so contacts of some sort must 
have existed, most probably of an indirect, “hand-to-hand” sort. 

Religion.—Religion in northern China, as in most lands during 
the Neolithic period, most likely consisted of beliefs in magic and 
animism and in orgiastic ceremonies for the promotion of fertility 
in general. In these, women probably played a large part. In China 
as elsewhere, indications of human sacrifice and cannibalism have 
been found in this connection. 

The bodies of the dead were buried in the earth; for cremation 
has never been general in China. 

Discussion.—The Neolithic stage of culture in northern China 
lacked many of the elements that it needed to develop into a more 
advanced civilization. However, it long survived the advent of the 
Bronze Age, and formed the basis of the peasant culture of the latter 
period—just as it has done in large measure during even later times. 

A word may be said here in regard to the influence of bamboo on 
cultural progress over so much of southeastern Asia. That plant 
(which anciently seems to have extended somewhat farther north 
than now) lends itself to such a wide variety of uses of all kinds that 
its presence appears to have acted as a definite deterrent to experi- 
mentation with other materials, and so to further progress. (See 


pl. 4). 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 473 


The Neolithic period elsewhere in the Far East seems to have been 
similar in a general way to the one just discussed, though in most 
places without the burnished pottery. Nowhere were the people yet in 
a pastoral stage, with tending of flocks and herds as their means of 
livelihood. On the contrary, they were planters, though with more 
dependence on hunting and fishing than in northern China. Mon- 
golia, for instance (which today we look on as preeminently a pastoral 
region), seems only to have adopted that type of culture when it 
acquired sheep and cattle (apparently from the west, to judge from 
the skeletal evidence); and nomadism proper after obtaining the 
horse, probably not long before the middle of the first millennium 
B. C. The effects of the acquisition by the Mongols of the latter 
cultural trait, incidentally, may profitably be compared with those 
that took place among our own Plains Indians when they got the 
horse from the Spaniards. 


SOUTHERN CHINESE CULTURE 


Southern China, Indo-China, Malaya, and the islands off the 
coast, like the Netherlands East Indies, Borneo, and the Philippines, 
had a somewhat different type of Neolithic culture, characterized by 
pile dwelling (see pl. 7, fig. 1), long dugout canoes, undecorated pot- 
tery, and in many if not all areas head hunting, tattooing, and ritual 
cannibalism. The peoples of these areas did some planting, more 
especially of leaf and root crops, but also depended greatly on fishing. 

This southern culture made its way northward along the coast 
as far as southern Korea and western Japan, where its impress still 
survives. Eventually it reached a northern form of Neolithic cul- 
ture more like the one just described. 


CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD 


TRANSITION BETWEEN STONE AND BRONZE AGES 


Except in northwestern China, almost nothing is yet known about 
the transition from the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. In 
Kansu, stone implements remained in use long after copper (or 
bronze?) arrow points and trinkets appeared, as signs of contact with 
metal-using peoples to the west. Burnished (and sometimes 
painted) pottery continued to be made, but was not as fine as before, 
and its designs tended to become naturalistic rather than. geometric. 
Villages were now protected by earthern walls, suggesting an increase 
in warfare, perhaps even invasion from without. 

In Shansi there has lately come to light still another Chalcolithic 
culture. This had a small amount of true bronze and also a different 
kind of pottery, bearing an impressed spiral design; and sheep seem 


474 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


to have been the principal if not the only domestic animals. Little, 
however, is known of this new culture as yet. 


DISTRIBUTION 


Both Kansu and Shensi (for these provinces, see map of China, 
fig. 21), we should note, are situated along the eastern terminus of 
the more northern of the two transcontinental migration routes. 
(See map, fig. 1.) Hence the presumption that bronze and the 
herding of sheep had diffused themselves to China from the west 
(where both these culture traits had been known much earlier) be- 
comes almost irresistible, 

The Chalcolithic period in eastern Asia still forms a “dark age.” 
In many areas, indeed, it probably never appeared at all, the tran- 
sition from the Neolithic period to a fully developed Bronze Age or 
even to one of iron having been a direct one, without intermediate 
phases. 

BRONZE AGE 


GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 


A Bronze Age is by no means an invariable cultural phase every- 
where on the globe. It has, on the contrary, been strictly limited in 
both time and space. Roughly it extended along the North Temperate 
Zone of the Old World, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. (See map, 
fig. 4.) Before it had had time to diffuse itself beyond this area, 
bronze had been overtaken and supplanted, save for limited uses, by 
that cheaper and more useful metal, iron. 


DIFFUSION 


The true Bronze Age, as distinct from the Chalcolithic period that 
ushered it in, began in the Near East some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago, 
and lasted until about 3,000 years ago, when it gradually gave way 
to the Iron Age. It reached western Europe and eastern Asia less 
than 4,000 years ago, and lasted there for about 1,500 years. 

All the Bronze Age civilizations are based on the same set of funda- 
mental elements. These were: the use of bronze itself for weapons and 
implements; possession of the common domestic animals, and cultivated 
plants; knowledge of the wheel and of animal traction; and some form 
of writing. The spread of these cultural traits took place in various 
ways, through war, trade. and migration, and of course took a long time. 
Our present civilization has spread far more rapidly, mainly as the 
result of improved means of communication and transportation. Wit- 
ness, for example, the rapidity with which the airplane, invented 
hardly a generation ago, has reached all parts of the earth. 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 475 


To return to the Bronze Age, however, the third and second millen- 
niums, before our era were marked by great disturbances, widely felt 
in the Old World. The ancient kingdoms of the Near East fell, in most 
cases through invasion by peoples having war chariots and improved 
weapons of bronze. It was such peoples that overran and conquered 
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, northwestern India, and northern 
China. These movements, when traced backward, all point to the 
western end of the Eurasiatic steppe belt (see map, fig. 1) as their 
region of dispersion. Significant too is the fact that bronze weapons 
and war chariots appeared latest and survived longest at the two ex- 


RIVER-VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS 


-OF THE-— 


ANCIENT WORLD 


COFCANC 
Cee @ BABYLONIAN 


@EGYPTIAN 
@ INDUS VALLEY 
@ Earty CHINESE 


@ Use oF BRonzE 
IN ANTIQUITY. 


FIcurE 4.—River valley civilizations of the Ancient World, showing (in black) 
area of use of bronze. 


tremities of their region of occurrence—in the British Isles in the west 
and in China in the east, having gone out of use slightly earlier in the 
latter region than in the former. 


BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE NEAR EAST AND OF CHINA 


It is illuminating to compare and contrast the Bronze Age civiliza- 
tions of the Near East and of China. In the former region the de- 
velopment of the Bronze Age has been traced step by step out of the 
antecedent Neolithic cultures into the fully developed metal-using 
civilizations of early historical times. This evolution required at least 
4,000 years and in some particulars much more than that. 


476 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Thus in Babylonia, writing, wheeled vehicles, the ox-drawn plow, 
wheat, and all the common domestic animals except the horse, with 
a complete mastery of bronze working, all existed well before 3000 
B.C. In China, on the other hand, there seems to have been no knowl- 
edge of the metals before around 2000 B. C. Yet only something like 
500 years later we find the Yellow River basin occupied by an already 
well-developed Bronze Age civilization which had most (though not 
quite all) of the elements known to the Near East a thousand years or 
more earlier. This civilization must therefore have appeared in north- 
ern China during the first half of the second millennium B. C. 

Thus not only did the Bronze Age begin in China many centuries 
later than in the Near East, but it survived there nearly a thousand 
years longer. Moreover the Chinese form had from the first, ap- 
parently, a well-developed system of writing, a very skilled knowledge 
of bronze working, and the same domestic animals and food plants 
(though not yet the ox-drawn plow) as in the Near East. Also it had 
wheeled vehicles and animal traction, including the use of horses to 
draw the chariot. The latter object, moreover, was used in exactly the 
same way as in the Near East, for pagentry, ceremonial, hunting, 
and war. 

On the other hand, in China the local Bronze Age lacked certain 
traits characteristic of the same cultural stage in the Near East. Thus 
the Chinese had no dairy economy or weaving of woolen fabrics; and 
it was not until around the fourth century B. C. that the ox-drawn 
plow finally appeared there (Laufer, 1914-1915 passim). 


CHINESE ORIGIN LEGENDS 


Chinese legends about the origin of their civilization (the only one 
of which they knew in antiquity) have come down to us in late form, 
and do not represent genuine folk recollections, at least as they stand. 
They are not, however, mere inventions or fictions, but preserve, albeit 
in distorted form, the real beliefs held by their Bronze Age ruling 
classes about the beginnings of their civilization (Latourette, 1934, vol. 
1, pp. 37-40; Bishop, 1934, p. 297): 

The oldest traditions cluster about northwestern China, especially 
southwestern Shansi and central Shensi. This localization is signifi- 
cant; for the area in question is again—like the one just cited as that 
where the Neolithic painted pottery and traces of the earliest knowl- 
edge of metals in China occur—near the eastern terminus of the “cor- 
ridor of the steppes.” (See map, fig. 1.) Archeologically and cul- 
turally, this region is by far the most important in eastern Asia. 


THE HSIA DYNASTY 


According to the orthodox Chinese accounts, the first dynasty was 
that of the Hsia, but of this we have neither contemporary records nor 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP AT7 


identifiable archeological remains, and some have even doubted its 
existence. In later (but still fairly early) times, however, the Hsias 
seem to have been regarded as in some sort the forebears of the ruling 
class during the Chinese Bronze Age; and it seems most probable that 
they were an actual group, perhaps a local one (Creel, 1937, pp. 
97-181). 

THE SHANG DYNASTY 


The second dynasty claimed by the Chinese was the Shang. Here 
we are on much firmer ground, for of this we have both actual remains 
and contemporary written records. The Shangs seem in the beginning 
to have been merely one of several bronze-using groups in northwestern 
China, located in southwestern Shansi if we may believe an early 
legend. Our oldest accounts—reduced to their present form centuries 
after the close of their period—declare that they shifted their capital 
several times. 

Eventually however, perhaps about the sixteenth or fifteenth cen- 
tury B. C., we find them seated in the great North China plain, near 
the Yellow River. Here they established themselves, thenceforth to 
be for several hundred years the dominant group in that region. 
Either then or perhaps earlier the Shangs seem to have adopted 
numerous cultural features from the aborigines, descendants of the 
old Neolithic peoples; but essentially the Shangs themselves were a 
Bronze Age group, of rather primitive type. 

In later times the Shangs were sometimes called the Yins; but there 
is no contemporaneous evidence that they ever applied that name to 
themselves. 

With the Shangs, then, authentic Chinese history may be said to 
have begun ° (Creel, 1937, chap. 3; Latourette, 1934, vol. 1, pp. 40-46). 

Nature of the Shang “empire.”—The Shang “empire” meant simply 
the area, mainly in the middle and lower Yellow River basin, in which 
they exercised a precarious supremacy over as many other groups 
(most of them probably with a similar type of culture) as they could 
hold in subjection. Thus it was a mere tribute-collecting machine of 
the same kind as the earlier “empires” of the Near East. No evidence 
exists of any effort on the part of the Shangs to set up a feudal, much 
less a bureaucratic, system of government—forms which seem indeed 
to have been quite beyond their political concepts. 

The Shang rulers were not emperors but kings, of a primitive priestly 
type, though some of them seem to have been great war leaders as well. 
They were regarded by their subjects as intermediaries between man- 
kind and the Unseen Powers and as responsible for the maintenance of 
the due course of Nature through their observance of the proper rituals 

® Both Chinese and Occidental scholars agree that China’s authentic and continuous 


history does not begin until the ninth century B. C., long after the Shang Dynasty had come 
to an end. 


478 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


and tabus. Not the reigning king, however, but his deceased ancestors 
were the real power in the state. Their will was ascertained by divina- 
tion, and elaborate worship was paid to them. Succession to the 
kingly office was of the fraternal type, from older to younger brother, 
not the filial one, from father to son, usual in later times. 

Habitations—Both the rural population and the city poor seem to 
have lived in round pit dwellings like those of their Neolithic ancestors 
already described. The ruling class built large rectangular timbered 
houses of developed type, with roofs supported by rows of wooden 
pillars with stone or bronze bases. (On this type of architecture, 
which has survived in China down to recent times, see pl. 12, fig. 2.) 
These structures, which in some ways recall the megaron house of 
ancient Greece, were sometimes erected on low platforms of rammed 
earth. 

This last-named material was also used for walls about towns and 
enclosures, just as it still is in portions of China. This method of 
erecting walls and platforms is, or once was, common throughout the 
North Temperate Zone of the Old World; in Babylonia, for example, 
it was already at least 2,000 years old when the Shang period opened. 

Dressed stone and brick did not appear in China until many cen- 
turies later. Literary references, however, perhaps based on con- 
temporary evidence, attribute to the Shangs a varied and developed 
architecture. 

Tillage-—The economic foundations of the Shang civilization were 
animal husbandry and especially agriculture. As previously noted, 
the ox-drawn plow was not yet known in China; but tillage was carried 
on by the peasantry, direct descendants of the old Neolithic popula- 
tion, with the aid of hoes, mattocks, and apparently foot plows, shod 
with stone or shell. There is also some indication that irrigation was 
already being practiced during Shang times. 

The staple crops were wheat, millet, and perhaps rice. Of these, 
the first originated in western Asia, where it had already been domesti- 
cated probably thousands of years before the Shang period began. 
Millet was an inheritance in China from Neolithic times, and later 
on was the only cereal regarded as sacred—itself a sign of a high 
antiquity on account of the workings of religious conservatism. There 
is also some reason to believe that rice was grown. 

Beer was brewed from millet and perhaps from rice, though as to 
the processes employed, we know nothing. No spirits (distilled liq- 
uors) were known in China for something like 2,000 years after the 
Shang period. 

Animal husbandry.—Animal husbandry was also economically im- 
portant. Species both of the wild pony and of the wild ass are known 
from eastern Asia, although neither has ever been domesticated ; but 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 479 


evidence of the domestic horse in China in Neolithic times is wanting, 
just as it is, practically, in Europe during the same cultural phase. 
That the Shangs had it, however, there is no doubt; but they did not 
ride it, using it instead to draw their chariots. For in China, as in 
most ancient lands, the horse was driven long before it was ridden. 

Shang inscriptions reveal that cattle were the most important do- 
mestic animals. They were offered in sacrifice, their flesh was eaten, 
and their hides made into leather; but milk was not used. Oxen were 
probably employed to draw carts and carry packs. 

Sheep and goats were also kept. They seem, however, not to have 
been derived from native wild forms but from the same western 
ones as the domestic sheep and goats of the Occident. Sheep were 
sacrificed by the Shangs, though not to the same extent as cattle; 
and mutton was an article of diet. Wool, however, was not spun or 
woven, either then or later. 


Ficurp 5.—Country oxcart, a primitive survival. 


Swine were bred in large numbers, just as in Neolithic times; and 
dogs were both sacrificed and eaten. The domestic fowl was known, 
and appears to have reached China, probably by the Burma Road 
(see map, fig. 1) from Indo-China, during the “dark age” which fol- 
lowed the Neolithic period, for its remains have not been identified 
from sites of the latter cultural phase in China. 

Trade and transportation —A Bronze Age civilization always pre- 
supposes a considerable amount of trade, both domestic and foreign. 
The northern Chinese plain was, however, deficient in many kinds of 
raw materials, especially metals. And since these played an im- 
portant part in the life of the time, they had to be imported from 
other regions, particularly from the Yangtze Valley, then and for 
long afterward not regarded as part of China. 

Some transportation was carried on by water; but mainly it seems 
to have been by land, probably in oxcarts (for a modern but primi- 
tive survival, see fig. 5) and on the backs of oxen, for the horse 
seems to have been reserved for the uses of war, the chase, and 
religion. 


480 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


There seem to have been even then, just as there were later on, 
contacts with the rich metalliferous regions of the Yangtze Valley, 
just mentioned; and cowries (Cypraea moneta) and bones of the 
whale show that the Shangs were in touch, directly or indirectly, 
with the sea. The presence of jade, not known ever to have occurred 
in China proper, suggests that the Shangs obtained that substance 
from central Asia. Also, supplies of salt are necessary, for dietetic 
reasons, to a people subsisting mainly, as the Shangs seem to have 
done, on a cereal diet. 

Attempts to obtain such raw materials from abroad were, how- 
ever, often not true commercial ventures but great plundering raids, 
undertaken as state enterprises, with regular armies. The penetra- 
tion of the Yangtze Valley by certain Shang kings was probably of 
this character. 

Arts and crafts—Among arts and crafts, bronze working was 
carried to a pitch of technical and esthetic excellence hardly if ever 
equaled in later times, in any land. Bronze is an alloy of copper and 
other metals, usually tin and lead. It is uncertain whether Shang 
metallurgists knew the two latter as separate metals or whether they 
used copper ores containing them as impurities. 

The Shangs also cast magnificent bronze ritual vessels for use in 
ancestor worship. These vessels bear two styles of ornamentation 
which regularly appear in combination. Of these, one was a highly 
conventionalized animal style, the other geometric in design and 
apparently akin to the old Neolithic art of southeastern Asia. Some 
and perhaps all designs were thought to have magical power, espe- 
cially over the weather, most important to a predominantly agricul- 
tural community such as were the Shangs. There seems nothing to 
suggest that oramentation was ever applied for purely decorative 
effects. 

The wants of the ruling class were supplied by highly skilled 
craftsmen and artisans of many kinds; for specialization of tasks 
was already being carried to a high pitch. The needs of the 
peasantry and of the city poor probably differed little from those 
of their Neolithic ancestors. 

Pottery.—The painted pottery of Neolithic times had practically 
disappeared from northern China by Shang times, most likely during 
that as yet little-known “dark age” already mentioned. The coarse 
gray ware, also Neolithic in origin, continued however under the 
Shangs, as it did in fact all over northern China until well after the 
Christian Era. The potter’s wheel was regularly employed by the 
Shang potters. 

A limited use was also made of a kind of glaze, which, however, 
disappeared with the fall of the Shangs; and when glaze is again 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 481 


found in China it is of an entirely different type. The Shang potters 
also made fine white ware, neither glazed nor painted but bearing 
incised or impressed on its surface designs identical with those on 
the bronze ritual vessels just mentioned. 

Among all these types of earthenware there appeared a wide 
variety of forms, shapes, and sizes, many of them being represented 
in bronze also. 

Textiles—Both hemp and silk were woven into cloth during 
Shang times. Hemp, we may note, occupied the place in ancient 
China held in the Occident by flax and its derivative, linen. Matting 
and basketry were also woven. 

Decorative arts—Carving, sometimes of very fine quality, was done 
in stone, ivory, and probably wood. Both bone and bronze objects 
were inlaid with turquoise or mother-of-pearl. The Shangs also did 
considerable carving of jade, probably then as later believed to possess 
magical significance. 

Weapons and implements.—The weapons used in Shang times were 
as a rule of bronze. Socketed spears were known, and there were also 
two distinct types of battle-axes, each with its own method of hafting. 
Arrow points of bronze, stone, and bone were also used. The bronze 
sword did not appear in China until very late—not, in fact, until the 
Shang period had closed. 

Needles of bronze and of bone are also known, and knives and chisels 
were of bronze or stone. Agricultural tools of bronze are however 
almost entirely lacking; for that metal was always costly and was 
probably reserved almost exclusively for purposes of religion, luxury, 
and war. 

Warfare.—Among the causes of war mentioned in the Shang inscrip- 
tions are border raids and encroachments on grazing grounds. There 
was also the recurring need to enforce the authority of the Shang 
king over the subject states that withheld tribute and submission; and 
expeditions were made against non-Chinese people for plunder and 
captives. 

Armies are recorded as numbering from 3,000 to 5,000 men, and the 
main reliance in fighting was on the chariot, drawn, just as in the 
ancient Near East, by two horses yoked—not harnessed—abreast. 
Slaves and captives were employed as foot soldiers, as were also prob- 
ably levies of peasants. Weapons used by the charioteers were, as far 
as we know, bronze battle-axes and spears and the composite bow— 
the latter a weapon of circumpolar distribution. How the foot soldiers 
were armed, we do not know. 

Hunting —Hunting played an important role during Shang times. 
Many products of the chase were utilized, as for example ivory, hides, 
horns, and plumes. Great organized battues were periodically held by 


482 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the kings, riding in chariots just as in the ancient Near East. Their 
motive seems to have been not so much that of mere sport as the duty 
of ridding the land of dangerous and troublesome wild animals and 
of procuring victims for the sacrifices. 

Among the creatures whose bones have been found in Shang de- 
posits are the elephant, the tiger, the bear, the wild boar, deer, hares, 
and, strangely enough, the whale. Shang inscriptions sometimes state 
that elephants have been captured alive, not killed; and there is no 
doubt that the Shangs sometimes tamed these great animals. 

Writing.—There is no indication of even the beginnings of writing 
during Chinese Neolithic times, although perhaps quipus (knotted 
cords) or notched sticks may have been used then to aid the memory, 
just as by unlettered people in so many lands. 

The earliest known Chinese writing, already mentioned as occurring 
in surviving Shang inscriptions, dates from around the latter half 
of the second millennium B. C. Even then, however, it was already 
highly developed, and must have had a long previous period of evolu- 
tion somewhere. It is moreover directly ancestral to the Chinese writ- 
ing of the present day (Creel, 1937, pp. 1-16). 

Existing specimens of these inscriptions, aside from very brief ones 
on bronze vessels, are incised or scratched on animal bones and shells 
of the tortoise. Shoulder blades of oxen were often used. The in- 
scriptions that we possess consist largely of oracular inquiries and 
responses; but it is known that the Shangs also wrote on wooden 
tablets and bamboo slips. Hence it is quite possible that a consider- 
able body of literature may have existed; but if so, it has entirely 
perished. 

Inscriptions on bone and shell were incised with a sharp point, per- 
haps of bronze or obsidian, for steel was not yet known, and the Shangs 
probably had nothing else hard enough. Some kind of brush was 
also used. A few characters thus written on potsherds have been 
found, and it is almost certain that writing on bamboo and wood was 
done with a brush. 

Knowledge of writing during the Shang Dynasty was confined to 
a very small class, and the art itself was regarded as having a magical 
and mysterious character. Thus recorders were also diviners. The 
same way of thinking has survived in China down to much later times. 

Religion—We know something of the Shang pantheon—in part 
from contemporary inscriptions. The supreme god was Shang Ti. 
The title “Ti” indicated a divine being, and was applied by the Shangs 
not only to their highest divinity but also to the spirits of deceased 
royal ancestors. Hence it has been surmised that Shang Ti may have 
originated merely as the (legendary) first ancestor of the Shang 
kingly line. 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 483 


Shang Ti was entreated both for abundant harvests and for success 
in war. He was believed to live in the sky, perhaps in the North Star, 
and so was in this sense a sky god; although we have no evidence that 
the Shangs worshiped the sky itself. 

The Shangs also revered many other divinities, often female. 
Among them, according to the inscriptions, were the Eastern Mother, 
the Western Mother, the Dragon Woman, gods of the Winds, of 
Rivers, of Earth, and one called the Ruler of the (Four?) Quarters. 
This frequency of female divinities is in marked contrast to the later 
Chinese Bronze Age, and may have been due to aboriginal influence. 
For goddesses play a great part in the primitive beliefs of eastern 
Asia, the Japanese Sun Goddess being probably the best-known ex- 
ample. 

Of ancestor worship among the Shangs, the only direct evidence 
applies to the royal line alone; but there is little doubt that the ruling 
class in general practiced it throughout the original Chinese culture 
area. 

The welfare of the spirits of the dead depended, it was held, on 
the sacrifices offered to them by their living descendants. It was 
regarded as highly dangerous, therefore, to withhold them and thus 
rouse the ancestral spirits to anger. The sacrifices consisted of both 
human and animal victims (Creel, 1936, pp. 206-216). The former 
were often “barbarian” (i. e., non-Chinese) captives of war, taken 
most frequently from the Chiangs, a people to the northwest. The 
Shangs appear in fact to have been in the habit of raiding the 
Chiangs for supplies of human victims in a way that recalls similar 
practices among the Aztecs of ancient Mexico. 

Lastly, we may note, the Shangs had a “week” of 10 days, used in 
connection with their religious observances. 

Disposal of the dead—During Shang times, important people were 
buried in great rectangular or cruciform pits, together with much 
wealth and many human victims. Mounds were not, however, erected 
over such tombs as yet. 

Fall of the Shangs—A later tradition asserts that the Shang 
Dynasty came to an end during a period of protracted drought for 
which the reigning king was held responsible through his neglect to 
observe the proper rites. And quite apart from such superstitious 
ways of thinking, such a long interval of dryness must necessarily 
have led to much suffering, unrest, and discontent. There is also 
some evidence that the king himself added to this feeling by a de- 
termined effort to assert his power over some of the rebellious rulers 
of the subject city-states that composed the Shang “empire.” And, 
worse still, in this attempt the king appears to have enlisted the 
aid of certain aboriginal tribes. 


484 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The rulers of these city-states were constantly trying to throw off 
the sway of their titular suzerian; and now some of them sought the 
aid of a group called the Chous, who lived on the northwestern fron- 
tiers of China, along the border between what are now the provinces 
of Shensi and Kansu (see map, fig. 21). 

These Chou people had been in contact with the Shangs for several 
generations at least. When we first hear of them they seem to have 
been in process of exchanging a pastoral for an agricultural mode of 
life. In some ways they appear to have been less civilized than the 
Shangs, but to have had a better organization for war and more effec- 
tive leadership. In certain particulars their civilization appears to 
have had a closer resemblance to those of the ancient Near East than to 
that of the Shangs. Examples of this are: the use of a 7-day week 
instead of the one of 10 days employed by the Shangs; possession, by 
the Chou rulers at least, of regular harems, with eunuch attendants, ap- 
parently unknown among the Shangs; and succession in the kingly 
line from father to son. Lastly, the bronze sword (Janse, 1930a, 
pp. 67-184; Karlbeck, 1925, pp. 127-133), long known in the Occident 
(where in fact it was already being replaced by much more effective 
swords of iron), reached China either with the Chous or early in 
their period. 

The overthrow of the Shangs is not known to us through con- 
temporary accounts; but it seems pretty surely to have been the 
result of a concerted attack on them by some of their subject city- 
states together with the Chous. The latter are said to have had with 
them as subject-allies eight peoples occupying parts of western and 
northwestern China, mainly in the central and upper Yangtze basin 
(Bishop, 1932c, pp. 236 et seq.). 

The Shangs collapsed perhaps as much from lack of unity and 
cohesion among the various and heterogeneous elements under their 
rule as from external force. Their conquest by the Chous did not 
however take place as the result of a single battle, as the “orthodox” 
account states. On the contrary, it required a long time, and was 
not completed for half a century at least after the initial invasion by 
the Chous. 

Perhaps the Shangs were too strong to be wholly crushed by the 
newcomers; for they were allowed to retain the nuclear part (called 
Sung) of their former territory, as vassals of the Chous. The princes 
of this remnant of the old Shang kingdom, said to have belonged to 
the Shang royal line, were granted the title of kung (duke), which 
no other feudal prince was permitted to hold. 

The historical Chinese civilization that we know had its roots 
firmly implanted in the Bronze Age culture of the Shang period, 
and there has been no serious break with the past until recent and 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 485 


even modern times. In this sense, and in this sense only, may we 
speak of the Chinese as “unchanging.” 


THE CHOU DYNASTY 


There are certain slight indications that during the Shang period 
and possibly even earlier, members of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic 
stock from the region north of the Tibetan plateau (see map, fig. 1) 
were pushing eastward and southward. With this movement of 
peoples the Chou invasion seems to have been connected, if indeed 
it was not actually part of it. 

These migrations perhaps account for the appearance of Tibeto- 
Burman peoples in so much of western China, especially in the upper 
Yangtze basin. Be that as it may, at all events there was established 
there, somewhere around a thousand years before our era, a Bronze 
Age civilization in large part associated with them. In extreme west- 
ern China the local culture also contained elements from northern 
India. Similarly, culture traits, passing through the region traversed 
by the now famous Burma Road, have gone on diffusing themselves 
from prehistoric times right down to the present day. To take a fairly 
recent example of this, maize or Indian corn, an American plant 
brought by the Portuguese to India during the sixteenth century, lost 
little time reaching China by this route. And the vital importance 
of the Burma Road to China today is well known to all. 

Chou origin legends.—At the time when the Chous first come within 
the purview of history they were, we are told, being pushed steadily 
eastward. Legend also states that they even for a time became guard- 
ians of the western frontier for the Shang kings. That the latter ever 
conquered the Chous, we have no evidence; but they evidently attracted 
them strongly into their cultural orbit. 

This outward thrust of the Chous from inner Asia in the direction 
of the coast lands was, it would seem, comparable to contemporary 
movements outward from the steppe regions into western Europe, 
southwestern Asia, and Egypt (Latourette, 1934, vol. 1, pp. 42-44; 
Creel, 1936, pp. 227-229). 

The chief deity of the Chous, now as later, was a sky god, T‘ien, be- 
lieved to control the weather and whom the Chou royal line claimed 
as its ancestor. For it was from Hou Chi, “Prince Millet,” said to have 
been miraculously sprung from T‘ien and who became God of Agri- 
culture under the Chous, that the latter claimed descent. In historical 
times, indeed, we find the Chou kings arrogating to themselves sole 
conduct of the worship of Tien, and also the title of T‘ien-tzi (Son 
of Heaven). This appellation remained the common one for the 
Chinese supreme rulers—the individuals whom we term “emperors”— 
down to 1911. 

566766—44—32 


486 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The Chous conquer northern China.—The Chous seem long to have 
meditated conquest of the Shang kingdom, against which they are 
said to have made at least one ineffectual attempt before they embarked 
on their final venture.’ They and their allies are said to have de- 
feated the Shangs in the region of the Shang capital, which recent 
archeological excavation shows they then savagely sacked and 
destroyed. 

The Chous then conquered much of northern China, where they 
established their power far more firmly than the Shangs had ever done. 
(On the Shang and Chou culture areas, see map, fig. 6.) The task 


Figure 6.—Shang (in black) and Chou (cross-hatched) culture areas, showing 
southward extension of the latter. 


seems to have required something like half a century, and a passage in 
Mencius tells us that they subdued 50 states. Over these they then 
set up a feudal kingdom of primitive type but still forming a great 
step in advance over anything in the way of a political organization 
that the Shangs had undertaken. 

However, the Chous failed to subdue the aboriginal populations of 
the northern coast lands, and these long remained independent or at 
most became tribute payers. Their thorough assimilation into the 
Chinese political body was not accomplished until many centuries 
later. 


7 The traditional date of 1122 B. C. for the Chou conquest is almost certainly too early by 
about three-quarters of a century. On this point, see Bishop, 1932c, pp. 235-237. 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 487 


The Chou conquest of northern China marked an important epoch 
in the history of civilization in the Far East, for as a result of it, 
many Shang refugees seem to have carried their own higher culture 
to various outlying regions hitherto barbarous. Such a process has, 
in fact, always been one of the ways in which cultural advances have 
taken place in the Far East just as everywhere else. Further, the 
Chou period was the one in which the Chinese people gradually de- 
veloped a consciousness of cultural unity. 

Nature of the Chou kingdom.—The earlier Chou kings, in organizing 
their feudal kingdom, are said to have divided it for administrative 
purposes into 9 (sometimes given as 12) chow or circuits. Over these 
they placed superintendents (significantly called mu, bullock drivers) 
to collect tribute. 

Politically, the kingdom is said to have contained at first 1,800 fiefs, 
many of them grouped into large territorial units granted to the con- 
quering Chou king’s relatives and allies. The old city-states did not, 
however, entirely disappear ; in certain instances, indeed, they retained 
their identity for long periods. 

By the eighth century B. C. the Yellow River basin (essentially the 
Chou kingdom, though the latter seems to have embraced extensions 
outside of it, particularly on the south; see fig. 6), had about 100 fiefs ; 
but in time even this number was still further reduced. Finally, to- 
ward the end of the dynasty only 7 large states were left. 

For some three centuries after their conquest of the Shangs, the 
Chou kings remained in their old seats in the west. They were at 
first rulers of the war-leader type; but they also took over the sacerdotal 
functions of their predecessors the Shang kings. As high priests of 
the kingdom, their persons were sacred, and they were the fountain- 
heads of all legitimate authority. Their royal symbol was the battle-ax. 

The early Chou kings pushed their conquests (at least temporarily) 
into the Yangtze basin, and perhaps also toward the northwest. But 
at length their power dwindled. In the eighth century B. C. the 
Chou line was driven eastward by renewed attacks from the west, 
and established itself in northern Honan. (See map, fig. 21). It thus 
lost the territorial basis of its power, and its scions gradually sank to 
the position of mere political figureheads. But for several centuries 
longer they retained their priestly functions and remained the sources 
of legitimacy. 

Social organization.—Society was divided during most of the Chou 
period (we know little of its earlier portion) into two classes, a small 
one of nobles, who held all the land and offices, and a large one of com- 
moners—peasant-serfs, artisans, traders, and slaves—who performed 
the labor. 

The nobles were grouped in 30 or fewer ancestor-worshiping clans. 
In the “Spring and Autumn Annals,” for example, 124 feudal states 


488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


are mentioned but only 22 clans. Branches of the latter were located 
in various parts of the country, often widely separated from one an- 
other. 

The head of each clan was trustee for its land (which was thus not 
his own personal property, to do with as he liked) ; and he also con- 
ducted the clan worship. The head of the ruling clan of a state wor- 
shiped his own ancestors and also the patron divinities of his state. 
For no separate priestly class existed in ancient China. 

Nobles were subject only to their own code, not to the laws govern- 
ing the lower classes. Knowledge of these laws gave the nobles a great 
advantage, and they objected strongly to their being reduced to writing. 
They also practiced polygamy, though custom strictly forbade their 
taking wives or even concubines of the same clan as their own, no 
matter how remote the kinship might be in reality. Headship of 
the clan passed in the male line, usually to the eldest son of the princi- 
pal wife; though in this respect usage was not fixed. The latter fact 
often caused great trouble, through disputed inheritances. Noble- 
women could not hold land or succeed to headship either of a clan 
or of a state. Hence inheritance of these privileges in the female line 
was impossible. 

Of the plebeian class, on the other hand, we know little; for early 
Chinese writers did not concern themselves with the masses. We may 
say however that the vast bulk of the population consisted of peasants in 
a state of serfdom, practically at the mercy of their lords. These 
peasant-serfs may have been grouped in matrilineal clans; and they 
probably retained much—as indeed Chinese peasants still do—of the 
old Neolithic culture of their remote forebears. They seem to have 
lived in rural hamlets, and to have had little contact with the urban 
life of the nobility. These little peasant hamlets were organized com- 
munally, and their inhabitants did their field work in common. Stone, 
shell, and wood continued to be used for agricultural implements. The 
ox-drawn plow was not yet known in China, its place being taken by 
foot plows used by men working in pairs. 

Serfs were bound to the estates on which they were born, and efforts 
were made by their lords to keep them from shifting their villages 
about in old Neolithic fashion ; for it was the labor of the peasants that 
gave value to the land, and there was a great demand for workers. It 
was therefore a crime to entice them away, and runaways could be 
reclaimed. There are indications, too, that the feudal lords dreaded 
uprisings among their peasants, and it was a capital offense to arouse 
discontent or unrest among them. 

The peasants tilled the land, but did not own it, although plots of 
ground on which to grow food for themselves and their families were 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 489 


periodically assigned to them, on which, however, they had to pay 
tithes. They had also to perform other work, such as ditching and 
draining; and they had likewise to follow their lords in the frequent 
wars, both public and private. 

The serfs on an estate were supervised by a land steward or bailiff 
appointed by the lord, and who among other duties exercised control 
over peasant marriages. 

At the bottom of the social scale, in Chou times as later, was a not very 
large class of slaves, recruited partly from criminals and captives of 
war. These were not attached to the soil, like the serfs, but were 
bought and sold in the market place with domestic animals. 

Economic development.—During much of the Chou period trade was 
by barter, and taxes and tribute were levied in kind. Cowry shells were, 
however, highly prized, both for their scarcity value and because of 
their religious and magical associations (which seem to have existed 
in many other lands also). The only basis of wealth, however, was 
land—arable, pasture, forests, salt marshes, and mines—which could 
only be held, whether in absolute ownership or as fiefs, by clans of 
nobles. Plebeians were thus barred from obtaining wealth and 
consequent power. 

Later, however, there occurred a gradual but great economic evolu- 
tion. No coined money yet existed; but there came tobe used in its 
place as units of exchange rolls of silk and fixed quantities of grain. 
We have no evidence that oxen or sheep were ever so used in ancient 
China, as they were in the west. 

Trade and transportation.—Trade, both domestic and foreign (i. e., 
mainly with the Yangtze Valley, not then regarded as a part of China) 
was active, and was partly in the form of state enterprises and partly 
in the hands of traders, who had however to pay heavy imposts. 

No understanding of the true function of trade, as a form of wealth 
production, seems ever to have arisen in ancient China, where the 
nobles despised it and regarded traders with contempt. Hence com- 
merce was tolerated merely, not actively encouraged. There are some 
indications however that it was more highly esteemed in the great 
Yangtze Valley states, and that they knew better how to make it con- 
tribute to building up their strength than did those of the more purely 
Chinese north. 

This earlier dependence on a natural economy and especially on 
taxes levied in grain rendered transportation of revenue from distant 
districts to the royal capital a difficult matter, and added greatly 
to the decentralization characteristic of the time. 

But around the middle of the Chou period the idea arose of cast- 
ing—not striking—metallic token money, or in other words a coinage. 


490 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


This practice seems to have originated in northeastern China. At 
first it took the form of miniature models of domestic utensils—knives, 
spades, and hoes—cast in copper. (See fig. 7.) This innovation 
fundamentally altered the basis of wealth, and for the first time per- 
mitted its accumulation in a form other than that of land. It thus 
deprived the nobles of that monopoly of the power and prestige that 
accompany riches, and played an important—perhaps even the de- 
cisive—part in undermining the old feudal system and causing its 
disintegration and ultimate downfall. 

This process became accelerated toward the end of the Chou period, 
and was of course accompanied by the disappearance of many of the 


Ficure 7.—Ancient Chinese token money of copper. 


barriers that had formerly separated different classes of society. 
Traces of these however still survive in both the Confucian and the 
Taoist beliefs and practices, as we shall see in a moment. 

Arts and crafts—What has already been said in regard to the arts 
and crafts of Shang times will apply, in most cases with increased force, 
to those which flourished under the Chous. 

While few actual remains of the technical skill and esthetic talent 
of the Chous have come down to us aside from their work in bronze 
casting and carving in jade (for examples of their work in bronze, see 
pl. 10, and figs. 8, 9, and 10), we know that their work ranked very 
high indeed. The subject is, however, too vast a one to receive detailed 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP AQ] 


treatment here. Fortunately there is no lack of excellent and author- 
itative books on various aspects of this fascinating subject, and to these 
the student may turn for further information. 


Ficurr 9.—Ancient Chinese bronze bell, Chou period. 


Habitations—The Chou nobles and their dependents lived in towns 
protected by rectangular ramparts of pounded earth provided with 
gates flanked by wooden towers. (See fig. 11.) In the center stood 


492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the palace enclosure of the local feudal lord (or in the capital of a 
state, that of its ruler), including his ancestral temple and the “altar” 
(a mere mound of earth) of the Shé or God of the Soil of the region. 
Every town had just north of it a market place, from which the lord 


errs Ce en The 


ead” 5 z 2S 


Figure 10.—Lid of Chou Dynasty bronze vase with bird figures. 


Bh 


Rerr tray 
os eo were 


oes 
5 
Sa 


B< 


2. 


Figure 11.—Tile model of ancient Chinese city gate. 


drew additional revenue through a sales tax. (For a plan of the 
ruins of such a town, of the Chou period, see fig. 12.) 

The palace enclosure also contained a school for the sons of nobles, 
the subjects taught being the rites (1. e., correct procedure on all occa- 
sions, religious as well as secular), music, archery, chariot driving, 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 493 


reckoning, and writing. Reverence to superiors or divinities was 
shown by bowing, kneeling, or prostration, as in the Occident, not by 
squatting as among the peasants and the peoples of southeastern Asia 
and the islands off the coast. 

Houses were of timber, pillared (see pl. 12, fig. 2), carved, and 
painted (or laquered), red being a favorite color, regarded as lucky. 
On the plastered walls were executed paintings of various auspicious 
creatures, such as the tiger and dragon. Pleasure towers, summer 
houses, and gardens are also mentioned. The upturned roof cor- 
ners, regarded in the Occident as so typically Chinese, did not appear 


.f-T Stet He. 


Foss Fry 
n 


r) 
u 
" 


Sra rere rec. 


'SraAsraarectrs. 


w FORMER | 
PATH P. PATH. VEAST 
canicaiaiahiden ALACE = | GATE 

| QUARTER? 


etm. 


Ss A: 
JS my GATE? 
= 
} = =e 
INNER || MOAT {= 
S.W. CORNER EO eT CERT | SPR RAIA PRE PPCEREAN a SHeIhE 
5k 7 ale = - ma WS eae IN, 
B8ROKEN DOWN CATS kata ANS AN NATTA PH i ZN ee BA fietyee 
Sy - MOUNS 


OUTER || MOAT pono 
soured GATE \ 


0 4 


Scale of Miles Ruins oF YING, 
PATHS Baas CAPITAL OF CH‘u 


Ficurg 12.—Ruins of Ying, ancient capital of Ch‘u, on the Yangtze River. 


in China until long after the beginning of the Christian Era; during 
Chou times Chinese roofs had straight lines, as in the west. 

Costume.—Costume, of course, varied according to rank, social 
position, and wealth, and probably, too, from state to state. That of 
the nobles was in general of silk, and was long and flowing, as in the 
Near East. Furs and feather capes were worn, particularly in cold 
weather. Embroidery and fine needlework were highly regarded, 
and bright colors esteemed. Shoes, at least among the well-to-do, 
were often ornamented with jade. 

Manners and customs.—The rank of a noble was indicated espe- 
cially by his headgear. This, on attainment of his majority by a 


494 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


patrician youth, was conferred on him with much ceremony in his 
ancestral temple. The token of a young noblewoman’s reaching 
marriageable age was the assumption of a hairpin, similiarly 
bestowed. 

Shoes were removed on entering a house; and bathing seems to 
nave been customary, at least among the nobles. Chairs and tables 
had not yet been introduced; hence people sat cross-legged on the 
floor or knelt on mats or cushions, and food was served on low stands. 

Food and drink.—Generally speaking, the basis of diet among all 
classes, nobles and commoners alike, was one of cereals—millet, 
wheat, and rice. Nobles, however, in contradistinction to the peas- 
antry, were also great eaters of meat, especially beef, mutton, and 
game, and of fish. And, just as today, there was a great variety of 
sauces. 

Dishes were of earthenware, wood, and bamboo. Glazed pottery 
disappeared with the fall of the Shangs, and true porcelain was still 
far in the future. Chopsticks were a late invention, and whether 
they had yet appeared during the Chou period we do not know; they 
are mentioned even as far back as late Shang times, but this may be 
an anachronism. 

The diet of the peasants was mainly millet, just as it is today in 
northern China. Their flesh food was chiefly dog, pig, and fowl— 
the latter apparently more highly esteemed than duck. 

All classes were given to drinking, usually done in connection with 
some religious or other ceremonial occasion; and beverages were 
various kinds of beer, brewed from millet or rice. The ancient 
Chinese, like the peoples of the west, early learned, empirically, that 
water was unsafe to drink on account of risk from typhoid; and tea 
was as yet unknown. As among many peoples, including ourselves 
not so many centuries ago, drinking vessels were often horns; those of 
the wild ox were especially prized by the ancient Chinese, perhaps 
on account of their capacity. 

Law.—As we have already remarked, the nobles had their own codes 
of conduct; and they were, moreover, until long after the beginning 
of the full historical period, sole repositories of the regulations gov- 
erning their peasants. These were committed to memory, not put in 
writing, and this of course gave the nobles a great advantage. Hence 
the latter vigorously opposed the issuance of written codes, which 
in fact did not appear in the various states until around the middle of 
the first millennium B. C. In the Near East advanced codes of laws 
had appeared 2,000 years earlier. 

Witchcraft was much feared, by high as well as low, and penalties 
against it were severe. In general, execution of the laws was harsh, 
and included such punishments as boiling alive, tearing asunder, de- 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 495 


capitation, and mutilation of various kinds. In addition to the regu- 
lations imposed on them by their lords, the peasantry also observed 
the ancient local customs of each region; but just what these were, 
we have only incidental knowledge. 

Warfare—The Chou period, like that of Bronze Age civilizations 
everywhere, was one of constant war. With the weakening of the 
royal power, especially after the Chou kings were driven eastward 
just after 770 B. C., the more powerful feudal states began a process 
of absorption of their weaker neighbors and of the neighboring non- 
Chinese peoples which led finally to only seven great kingdoms being 
left. 

In theory, wars were undertaken to punish and coerce those, whether 
Chinese or “barbarian,” who refused to acknowledge obedience to the 
Son of Heaven; but in reality they were waged for purposes of ag- 
grandizement. The third quarter roughly of the first millennium 
B. C. came, in fact, to be known as the Age of the Contending States 
(Latourette, 1934, vol. 1, pp. 251-256). 


Figure 13.—Ancient Chinese snaffle bits of bronze. 


The feudal lords also carried on private wars with their neighbors, 
even of the same state. Rulers, however, constantly tried to put down 
this practice, productive as it was of so much disorder and misery. 

There has been at no time in Chinese history a special military class, 
comparable, for instance with the Japanese samurai. All Chinese 
nobles, however, were supposed to be warriors. The title of a minister 
of war, Ssii-ma, meant Master of the Horse, and reflected the great 
importance of the horse in war. 

Armies were composed of two main classes of troops, chariotry and 
foot. The former, composed of nobles, was called shih, while the latter, 
a rabble of levies of peasant-serfs, was called di. Hence an armed force 
as a whole was known as a shih-lii. In theory each feudal lord’s chariot 
was accompanied by from 75 to 100 of his peasants, on foot, but in 
reality the proportion of foot soldiers attached to each chariot rarely 
exceeded 50. Cavalry did not form an element in Chinese armies 
until near the close of the Chou period, and chariots continued to be 
the main arm until about the third century B. C., after which they 
ceased to be mentioned as being employed in war. (For ancient Chinese 
Bronze Age bits, see fig. 13.) 


496 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Chinese armies in Chou times were divided into an advance guard, 
a center, right and left wings, and a rear guard. Provisions were 
carried in oxcarts and on pack oxen, and consisted largely of dried 
flesh (often that of wild game) and of grain. Armies then, however, 
just as elsewhere, eked out their supplies by foraging and pillage. 
The enormous numbers sometimes attributed to ancient Chinese armies 
by old writers are evident exaggerations; for it would have been, as 
a simple calculation will show, impossible to maintain them in the field 
under the conditions of transport that then prevailed. 

Methods of combat.—Kach chariot carried three men clad in hide 
armor—a driver, an archer, and aspearman. How the infantry were 
armed there are no clear indications, although they seem not as a rule 
to have carried missile weapons such as bows and arrows or slings. 


Ficure 14.—Chinese mounted archer, from design on tile; late first millennium 
B. C. 


Chariots (see pl. 3, fig. 2 for what seems to have been an antler cheek- 
piece of a Chinese Bronze Age bit) did not generally fight in massed 
formation but singly, each accompanied by its supporting contingent 
of foot. Every noble bore his own standard, by which he might be 
recognized in battle; and nobles as a class deemed it derogatory to 
fight on foot, “like peasants.” There are indications, however, that 
the practice was growing more usual toward the end of the Chou period. 
Armies were accompanied on campaigns by special sacred chariots 
bearing the tablets (perhaps originally images) of the Shé or God of 
the Soil of the state and also of the chief ancestor of its ruler; these 
tablets were supposed to extend their aid in battle, much like the Ark 
of the Covenant among the ancient Israelites. Omens were taken be- 
fore an action; and the signal for advance was given on a drum, that 
for retreat on a gong, both instruments borne on the chariot of the 
leader. Cessation of these sounds was apt to cause a panic among the 
troops by giving the impression that the leader had been either slain 
or made a prisoner by the enemy. ‘Trumpets were not used in war. 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 497 


Principles of strategy were well understood and applied, but tactics 
were undeveloped. According to our evidence, battles were confused 
affairs, with no attempt at maneuvering. Various simple strategems 
were, however, employed, especially feigned flights, meant to throw the 
foe off his guard. Attacks were usually directed against the weakest 
part of the hostile line, and particular efforts were made to kill or 
capture the enemy commander or seize his standard. 

In the Occident, mounted troops and iron weapons began to appear 
toward the end of the second millennium B. C., but in China not 
until around 500 years or so later. The idea of riding almost certainly 
came to the latter country, as it may already have done in the west 
also, as a culture loan from the nomad peoples of the steppe belt 
of inner Asia. For example, there are indications that the western 
“barbarians,” who around 770 B. C. expelled the Chous from their 


Figure 15.—Modern dragon boat, Yangtze River; from a photograph. 


old seats in Shensi and drove them eastward, were already in pos- 
session of mounted troops. 

The earliest Chinese cavalry seem to have been light lancers riding 
bareback and employed for scouting, skirmishing, and foraging, not 
in battle. Around 300 B. C., however, the northwestern Chinese 
states adopted the use of horse archers from their steppe neighbors. 
(See fig. 14.) Such troops were far more formidable than chariotry, 
on account of their mobility and speed, and soon supplanted the use 
of chariots in war. They thus contributed to the downfall of the 
already crumbling feudal system by depriving the Chinese nobles, 
preeminently charioteers, of much of their prestige in war. 

In the Yangtze basin and along the southern Chinese coasts, wars 
were often waged in fleets of large dugout canoes, ancestors of the 
later dragon boats (see fig. 15); for in that region chariotry seems 
to have been unknown until introduced by Chinese refugees from the 
north, while the great rivers provided abundance of waterways. 

Armor and weapons.—The nobles, fighting, as has already been 
said, from chariots, wore hide armor, with helmets of leather or 


498 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


copper (perhaps of bronze). Shields, of leather, wood, or wicker, 
were also used (Laufer, 1914, passim). The infantry too may have 
carried shields; but in other respects their costume in war was prob- 
ably simply what they wore in peace. Of their weapons we know 
almost nothing, though in some instances they seem to have borne 
dagger-axes. (See fig. 16.) 

Missile weapons were the bow and arrow and the sling. The for- 
mer was of the compound type, of wood, horn, and sinew, and in 
time became the especially characteristic arm of the steppe nomads; 
the famous Turkish bow is probably the best-known example. Arrow 


Ls 
A, 
wor 
Pez 
La 


Ficurn 16.—Ancient Chinese dagger-axes of bronze. 


points were of bronze, often with three edges. Crossbows were 
mainly used from chariots and in defending or attacking fortified 
places. That spears and javelins were ever hurled, there is nothing 
to indicate. 

Hand weapons included different kinds of battle-axes, the dag- 
ger-ax especially being often mentioned; and there were different 
types of bronze spears. (See pl. 10.) The bronze sword, as already 
noted, appears late in China; and when it does so, it is in an unde- 
veloped Altaic form, perhaps a culture loan from steppe regions. 
(See fig. 17.) 

Standards were of silk, yaks’ tails, and tufts of feathers. Forms 
of these have survived in parts of eastern Asia until very recently. 


499 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 


In general, siegecraft was well understood, and cities were taken 
in various ways—by surprise attacks, storm, or building around 


Or their ram- 


them walls of circumvallation and starving them out. 


ns 


swords. 


Ficurre 17.—Chinese bronze 


g@ rivers 


parts, of rammed earth, might be breached by divertin 


against them, or by tunneling under them and then setting on fire 
the timber props supporting the roof of the mine and thus causing 


its collapse. 


The latter method was also employed in the Occident, 


where it seems to have appeared rather earlier. 


500 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Blood feuds.—In addition to waging private wars, already men- 
tioned, the Chou Dynasty nobles, turbulent, aggressive, and given to 
fighting, regarded the relentless prosecution of blood feuds as a 
sacred duty. This custom the rulers of states found it exceedingly 
hard to abolish, in spite of the disorders to which it gave rise. 

Social effects of war.—This constant warfare naturally produced in 
time important social consequences. For example, as improved 
methods of fighting appeared, the exclusive place in war held by the 
Chou nobles could no longer be maintained, and social barriers were 
broken down. Various classes of plebeians were rewarded for courage 
or loyalty in war by being elevated to higher positions than any to 
which they might have aspired before. Thus peasants and members 
of the artisan class might be ennobled (i. e., become landlords and 
hence feudal vassals). Slaves were similarly rewarded by being 
granted freedom. 

Hunting —Originally, as we have already noted of the Shang period, 
it was the duty of Chinese nobles to rid the land of dangerous or 
troublesome wild beasts; but in Chou times the sport motive seems to 
have predominated. 

For this purpose the Chou kings and nobles held great seasonal hunts, 
conducted on a large scale. These were carried on in chariots, just as 
in the ancient Near East, with the aid of large armies of peasant 
beaters on foot. Such hunts served as training and preparation for 
war, and they also sometimes masked surprise attacks on unsuspecting 
states. Game laws were very strict, it being for instance as great a 
crime to kill a deer as to murder a man. 

As the country grew more settled, however, and game scarcer, 
rulers and powerful nobles enclosed private hunting parks, just as 
did, for example, the ancient Persians. Prohibitions against killing 
game or even gathering wood in these parks were among the chief 
grievances of the peasantry, who regarded them as a great hardship. 

Religion.—Peasant religion during the Chou period seems to have 
been derived from the old Neolithic fertility cults, and was marked by 
much witchcraft, magic, and even human sacrifice, though the latter 
practice was opposed by the lords, probably on economic rather than 
humanitarian grounds, and eventually disappeared. 

Toward the close of the Chou period feudalism declined, its decay 
not unnaturally going hand in hand with a recrudescence of the old 
popular religion. At the same time, too, the masses seem to have 
adopted elements from the ancestor worship of the nobles. In this 
way gradually evolved the Chinese cult of ancestors of later and 
modern times. 

Among the nobles, on the other hand, a quite different religion pre- 
vailed. In this, the chief god, T‘ien, was regarded both as the ultimate 
ancestor of the royal line and also as a sky god. 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 501 


Fairly early in the Chou period a tendency arose to identify T‘ien 
with Shang Ti, chief god of the Shangs. This confusion was appar- 
ently facilitated by the fact that both divinities were sky gods, just as 
were the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter, also eventually identified. 

The Chous also had a Goddess of Earth, Ti, a kind of consort of 
T‘ien (Bishop, 1939c, pp. 29-31); thus the Confucian “Classics” tell 
u& that “T‘ien and Ti are the father and mother of all things living.” § 
In the religion of the Chous, in marked contrast to that of the Shangs, 
goddesses seem to have played a very minor part. They are found 
more particularly among the coastal populations, not yet fully Chinese, 
and also among the insular and other peripheral peoples of eastern 
Asia. 

The Chou pantheon, which we know only in late form, comprised, 
in addition to the gods brought with them by the Chou and including 
of course the royal ancestors, other divinities, some of them taken 
over from the Shangs and perhaps also from the aboriginal peoples 
of eastern Asia. Thus there were local gods (not goddesses) of the 
soil, the Shé, already mentioned (Bishop, 1933c, pp. 32-34) ; these we 
know existed at least as far back as Shang times, and theirs was a 
primitive concept with many archaic features. There was also a Rain 
God in the form of a frog. 

The dragon was regarded, if not actually as a divinity, at least as 
a supernatural being, benevolent in nature—not, as in Europe, malefi- 
cent. The original of this concept dates back at least to Shang 
times, and seems to have been founded in part on the Chinese alligator, 
regarded as a rain bringer, and therefore as a friend of man. 

But the real basis of aristocratic religion under the Chous, as most 
probably under their predecessors the Shangs, was the cult of an- 
cestors. Whether the Chous were ancestor worshipers before their 
conquest of the Shangs is unknown; but after that event the deceased 
forbears of their kings became the patron divinities of their kingdom. 
Hou Chi, “Prince Millet,” was at once an ancestor of the Chou royal 
line and also its official God of Agriculture (Bishop, 1933c, pp. 37 et 
seq). 

Souls of nobles after death became Shén; those of plebeians, ued. 
The latter term was also applied to the gods, demons, and ghosts of 
non-Chinese peoples. 

There is little to indicate that divinities in Chou times were regarded 
as having human form, or even »f their being represented by images. 
Rather, they seem to have been indicated by symbols. That of Ten, 
for example, was a circle or disk; that of Earth, a square. This sym- 
bolism persisted, officially at least, down to very recent times. 

In general, ancient Chinese divinities and supernatural beings were 


8 The notion of marriage between Sky and Earth is a very common and widespread one. 
566766—44 33 


502 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


usually regarded as having grotesque and composite forms, and thus 
belong to a stage of religious throught corresponding roughly to that 
of the old Egyptian “beast gods,” familiar to most of us. Thus Ho Po 
(“Count of the Ho”), God of the Huang Ho or Yellow River, had a 
human face and the body of a fish. Shén-nung, God of Agriculture 
in the Yangtze basin and who in northern China supplanted Hou Chi 
in the same capacity toward the close of Chou times, had a human 
body and the head of a bull. Beings with the bodies of birds and 
human faces or with the bodies of serpents and human heads, as well 
as many others of similar composite form, also occur in the old writ- 
ings. 

Among the natural objects worshiped were mountains, rivers, springs 
(see pl. 9, fig. 1), rocks, and trees. Thus, “famous mountains and great 
rivers” are often mentioned as worshiped by the feudal princes. This 
was undoubtedly a very primitive survival; for such objects have been 
venerated in many countries from remote prehistoric times. 

The sacrifices that accompanied worship in the Chou period were 
similar to those of the Shangs, but with certain progressive modifica- 
tions. Among the victims offered were cattle, swine, sheep, and dogs. 
Horses were also sacrificed, especially to the Chou God of War. 
Human sacrifices, common in Shang times, were still occasionally 
offered by the Chous; but this practice became rarer as time went on, 
and at length disappeared almost entirely. 

As in most lands at certain stages of religious development, the will 
of gods and ancestors was sought before embarking on any enterprise 
of importance. -In the official religion this was most usually done 
with the aid of the shell of the tortoise; hence “to consult the tortoise” 
came to mean to inquire about the future. Omens were also drawn 
from various natural phenomena, such as dreams or the flight of birds. 
The howling of ghosts and the hooting of owls were portents of evil. 

With the decline in power of the Chou royal line and the decay of the 
old aristocratic religion, popular concepts once more rose to the sur- 
face. During this period also the religious ideas of the northern 
Chinese were influenced and modified by others traceable to the Yang- 
tze basin. Instances of this are the displacing by Shén-nung (the 
“Divine Husbandman”) of Hou Chi as God of Agriculture in northern 
China, and the extension to the latter region of the dragon concept, 
pretty surely of southern origin. 

We may note in this connection that many of the elements of the 
ancient Chinese religious beliefs and practices had a far wider range 
than China proper. Some of them point to western Asia and even to 
eastern Europe. In the main, however, they belong to that body of 
religious ideas and customs that pervaded southeastern Asia and cer- 
tain adjacent island groups from times probably before the appear- 
ance of a Bronze Age civilization in northern China, 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 503 


Examples of these latter traits are: the dragon-boat festival, espe- 
cially characteristic of southern China but extending over a wide area 
outside China itself (Bishop, 1938b, pp. 415-424) ; the tug-of-war; 
ceremonial swinging; and the ritual bullfight (Bishop, 1925)—all of 
them practices apparently connected with the promotion of fertility. 

Later Chinese religion was only in part an outgrowth of the beliefs 
that prevailed during Chou times. For the eventual disappearance 
of the feudal system with its aristocratic ancestor worship caused the 
destruction of the latter in its old form and its adoption, with certain 
important modifications, by the Chinese people in general. Traces of 
the old aristocratic religion may, however, be seen even today in the 
Confucian system (for the temple to Confucius at his birthplace see 
pl. 12, fig. 1); and many of the ancient beliefs of the masses, among 
them probably survivals from Neolithic times, still appear in modern 
Taoism. 

For Confucius (551-479 B. C.) was himself a member of the Chou 
nobility (though claiming descent from Shang times), a loyal subject 
of his feudal prince and of the Chou king, and a faithful follower 
of the code of conduct of his own social class. (See pl. 9, fig. 2 for 
the tomb of Confucius.) During several centuries after his death, 
however, his teachings exerted little influence; and it was not until 
the founding of the Han Dynasty (ca. 200 B. C.) that the authorities, 
realizing the importance of Confucianism as an instrument of state- 
craft and a means of controlling the people, began to give it recognition 
and encouragement. 

On the other hand, the ancient Chinese popular beliefs and practices 
tended more and more to associate themselves with the doctrines of 
Laotze (traditional date of birth 604 B. C.). That philosopher, of 
whose teachings the later Taoist system is in part the product, voiced 
the resentment of the masses against the arrogance, tyranny, and 
bloodshed of the feudal princes. His views were essentially demo- 
cratic, and denied the value of petty human distinctions and ambitions. 
Hence the very ancient but long-submerged beliefs of the lower classes 
have naturally tended to crystallize about his teachings. 

Later, during the early centuries of the Christian Era, Chinese 
religious ideas, together with other cultural features, spread over a 
large part of the Far East. Notably was this the case with Indo- 
China, Korea. and Japan. Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet—regions 
no farther away geographically but with different types of culture 
patterns—were less intimately affected. 

Music.—Music played a part of great importance during the Chou: 
period in all ceremonial life, on religious occasions as well as at 
banquets, archery contests, and the like. It had especially religious 
and magical connotations, and correct tunes were supposed to frighten 
away evil spirits and summon beneficent ones, including those of the 


504 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


ancestors when these were to receive worship. Musical instruments 
were drums and bronze bells (see fig. 9); flutes, single and double; 


whistles; and sets of musical stones. 


seem also to have been used (Creel, 1936, pp. 330 et seq.). 


we eww ee ee ee = = = nw ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee = ea ee ee ee ee ew wn ew ew ee = 


' 
jee ee ee ee ee bee eee we enw en we we ee 


aS 


eee eenne eee eee = ee eee = = 


eS 


we ee eee eee eee 


Scale: 2000 feet 


3 


Simple stringed instruments 


ol 


CO I OO SE Se a a eee | 


Figure 18.—Hypothetical reconstruction of grave mound of Ch‘in Shih Huang Ti. 


(See pl. 1.) 


Disposal of the dead.—As we have already seen, disposal of the 
dead naturally played a part of the first importance among an ancestor- 
worshiping people like the ancient Chinese nobles, during all periods. 

During Chou times burial, not cremation, was the general rule. 


There were, however, exceptions. 
of cremation, sometimes accompanied by chariot burial. 


A few indications exist of a rite 
Mention is 


made of a group in the northwest (perhaps, however, non-Chinese) 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 505 


.who burned their dead on pyres. And a custom of cremation, appar- 
ently not of Buddhist origin, is still practiced by certain Tibeto- 
Burman tribes of western China. 

During the Chou period the important dead, covered with red 
pigment, were placed in wooden chambers constructed underground. 
Goods and particularly bronze vessels were buried with them, as well 
as human beings, although not in such numbers as in the preceding 
Shang Dynasty. Chariot burials also occurred, as in the west. Burial 
mounds, usually though not always truncated pyramids of earth, 
often gigantic in size, were then erected over them. (See pl. 1 and 
figs. 18, 19, and 20.) 


Saas == 


Wire —. 
oR St : = = 
eS St Sag =e == a ae 
SSS eee SSS SS === : aS 


ec 


Ficure 19.—Group of ancient grave mounds, northwestern China. 


THE BRONZE AGE REACHES WESTERN JAPAN 


Apparently about the close of the Chou period or very shortly 
thereafter, bronze began to appear in western Japan. It came from 
the Asiatic continent by two routes, the one through Kyushu, western- 
most of the larger islands of the archipelago, the other from Korea 
to the northwestern shores of the main island. The area over which 
it diffused itself was roughly that bordering the Japanese Inland 
Sea; it did not extend far beyond the eastern extremity of that body 
of water. 

IRON AGE 


IRON APPEARS IN CHINA 


The advent of iron in China had no such revolutionary effect on the 
development of civilization there as had that of bronze, something 
like a thousand years earlier. It had no immediate influence on the 
political, social, or economic life of the country, but meant merely 


506 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


the gradual substitution of one metal for another as the superiority . 
of iron over bronze for certain purposes became slowly apparent. 

Tron had been well known in the Near East for something like a 
thousand years before jt appeared in China, first perhaps in the 
Yangtze Valley. The balance of probability seems to be that the 
knowledge of how to smelt and work iron reached China from northern 
India. The route it followed was apparently the one traversed by 
rice, the domestic fowl, and other culture traits almost certainly of 
Indian origin—in other words, the same region through which passes 
the highly strategic Burma Road. 

At all events we find domestic utensils and agricultural imple- 
ments being made of iron around 500 B. C. In both the Yellow River 
and the Yangtze basins, however, that metal only very slowly sup- 
planted bronze as the material for weapons. A similar phenomenon 
also occurred in Homeric Greece, where bronze continued to be 
employed for weapons of war long after iron was being used for 
domestic utensils. 

Superior iron ores and abundant wood for charcoal encouraged pro- 
duction of steel in the Yangtze Valley; but in northern China, where 
wood was scarcer, coal came to be used in the reduction and manufac- 
ture of iron. 

Long, straight, steel swords, often double-edged and far superior to 
the old short ones of bronze, appeared in China toward the close of the 
Chou period. Weapons apparently very similar are shown on the 
Assyrian monuments of something like 500 years earlier, and were 
probably carried both east and west by the steppe peoples; in the 
Occident this type eventually developed into the “Crusader’s sword.” 

Swords of this type may, too, very possibly have aided the warlike 
northwestern state of Ch‘in in its conquest of all China, late in the 
third century B.C. These blades seem to have come into general use 
in China (save in the extreme south, where bronze still lingered), 
shortly before the commencement of our era. 


FALL OF THE CHOUS: FIRST CHINESE EMPIRE 


During these conquests, Ch‘in brought to an ignominious end the 
very ancient Chou Dynasty, long since lapsed into powerlessness and 
insignificance. In its stead, toward the close of the third century 
B. C., the reigning king of Ch‘in established a real Chinese Empire.® 
This he erected on bureaucratic foundations of which traces survive 
even today. As its absolute ruler he assumed the title “Shih Huang 
Ti”—First Emperor.” (For a view and plan of the enormous grave 
mound of this man of genius, see pl. 1, and fig. 18.) 

®* From the name Ch'in almost certainly comes our own for China. Those who dispute 
this, on the ground that the latter name appears (in India) before the founding of the 


Chinese Empire, forget that the state of Ch'in had previously annexed the eastern terminal 
of both the two transcontinental routes linking China and the Occident (see map, fig. 1). 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 507 


SPREAD OF IRON TO NEIGHBORING LANDS 


Into many adjacent regions, such as southern China, Manchuria, 
Korea, and western Japan, iron was introduced from northern China, 
during the early centuries of the Christian Era. In certain of these 
regions, as we have just seen, bronze had already begun to be used; 
but there iron soon overtook and superseded it. In other areas, as for 
example eastern Japan, where bronze had not yet been adopted, the 
transition was direct from the Stone Age to that of iron, without the 
interposition of a Bronze Age at all. This is in fact what has taken 
place in most parts of the world. 

The seaboard region of northern China was still in the hands of 
non-Chinese peoples until late in the first millennium B. C. For 
example, the birthplace of Mencius, about the middle of the fourth 
century B. C., had less than 200 years earlier (1. e., in the time of 
Confucius) still been in the hands of “barbarians.” The assimilation 
of the coastal populations of northern China by the Chinese civiliza- 
tion seems indeed to have been a cultural rather than a military 
conquest. 

The inhabitants of extreme southern China, perhaps of the Mon- 
Khmer linguistic stock, were yet in the Bronze Age at the beginning 
of the Christian Era; but they soon thereafter came under the in- 
fluence of the Chinese civilization, already in its Iron Age, pushing 
down from the north. 

Southern China.—The numerous waterways and the bold, deeply in- 
dented coast line of southern China naturally invited the development 
of an esentially aquatic mode of lfe (Bishop, 1934, pp. 316-325; 
1938b). Probably even before knowledge of metals had appeared, 
large dugout canoes were being made. (See fig. 15.) These, propelled 
by paddles alone, were nevertheless capable of long voyages along 
the Asiatic coast. Not, however, until the sail had appeared could 
penetration of oceanic areas begin. 

This southern culture had before the (local) dawn of history spread 
as far as southern Korea, western Japan, and the East Indian islands. 
Today it survives in purest and least modified form (though it knows 
iron) in parts of Borneo and of Indo-China. 

Indo-China—The civilization of Indo-China, though resting 
basically on a strong aboriginal foundation, was greatly affected by 
the more advanced ones of both China and India. These began to 
make themselves felt there around the beginning of the Christian 
Era, and provided the necessary stimulus for the development of a 
characteristic form of culture during the first millennium A. D. 

Korea.—Northern Korea, too, was drawn increasingly into the 
Chinese cultural orbit. This tendency was accelerated and augmented, 
toward the close of the first millennium B. C., by refugees fleeing from 


508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


disorders in northern China. Also, the great Han emporer Wu Ti 
(see fig. 20), late in the second century B. C., established a Chinese 
colony in northern Korea which survived for several hundred years; 
while an independent kingdom with a civilization of Bronze Age 
type arose about the same time or perhaps a little later in the south- 
eastern part of the peninsula. Both colony and kingdom became im- 


N 


wi 


S 


iy 


Y 


SS 


ARIS 


LLL ELLE 


NS 


SSS 


Scale: 600 feet 


Figure 20.—Plan and elevation of grave mound of Han Wu Ti. 


portant secondary centers from which civilizing influences spread over 
much of eastern Asia. 

Japan.—Toward the close of the Chou period again, a stream of cul- 
tural influences from around the mouth of the Yantze River reached 
Kyushu, in western Japan. In that country it encountered other 
streams from Korea and even from southern Manchuria, and inter- 
mingled with them to form the historical J apanese civilization. The 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP 509 


latter also thus owed its origin and stimulus entirely to the continent 
of Asia, especially to China. 

The founder of the Japanese imperial line, the “official” Japanese 
accounts tell us, was descended from the Sun Goddess, and conquered 
the western part of the archipelago.’? At that time and for long 
afterward, central and eastern Japan remained in the hands of the 
Ainu aborigines, then (from their remains) still in the Neolithic stage 
of culture but gradually absorbing more advanced elements of civiliza- 
tion from their invaders and ultimate conquerors. 

The very brief and partial Bronze Age culture of western Japan 
was thus soon superseded by an Iron Age civilization of continental 
origin, which by the close of the first millennium A. D. had overspread 
the entire archipelago save its extreme northern portion. 

The Japanese Early Iron Age (the so-called Dolmen Period) was 
characterized by burial in megalithic chambers or dolmens over which 
great mounds were erected; by the form of steel sword used ; by fight- 
ing on horseback with the bow and arrow; and by many other traits, 
most of them Chinese in origin but others pointing in the direction of 
central Asia and even of the Occident. (Sansom, 1982.) 


SUMMARY 


Let us now recapitulate. Forms of man have occupied eastern 
Asia from very ancient times—from the early Pleistocene period at 
least—for “Peking man,” one of the most primitive human types yet 
found, dates from that remote epoch. 

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) man later appeared in northern China, 
Mongolia, the extreme south of Asia, and perhaps Japan. He may 
also, there is some reason to suspect, have spread to the Philippines 
while those islands were still attached to the continent of Asia, and 
have survived there for a long time. 

Later yet, though still long before the dawn of history, various forms 
of Neolithic (New Stone Age) cultures spread all over the Far East, 
where they are divisible into two fundamental classes, a northern and 
a southern. These both agree however in deriving their subsistence 
from planting, eked out in the one case by hunting, in the other by 
fishing. They had thus both already passed far beyond the stage of 
mere food gathering and had become food producing. Probably to- 
ward the second half of the third millennium B. C. there appeared in 
northern China, near the eastern end of the “corridor of the steppes,” a 
more advanced culture, still Neolithic or New Stone Age in character— 
that is, quite without metals—but possessing a painted pottery that 

10 The date claimed by the Japanese for the founding of their imperial line, 660 B. C., is 


of course absurd. The actual time seems to have been about the commencement of our era, 
and reliable and continuous Japanese history does not begin until considerably later still. 


510 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


has been likened to similar forms of ware found in southeastern 
Europe. Not long afterward, again, probably around 2000 B. C. 
there arose in the same general region a Chalcolithic period, with the 
first evidence of bronze in China. 

A little later still—toward the middle of the second millennium 
B. C., for we have now reached the protohistoric era—we find in the 
Yellow River basin a highly developed civilization of Bronze Age 
type, based on almost the same set of fundamental elements as had 
been the far more ancient river valley civilizations of the Near East. 


OW TER WeiMAO NG iOVE IEA 


Figure 21.—Map of China, showing the 18 provinces. 


This new culture—of its origin we as yet know nothing—slowly dif- 
fused itself until toward the middle of the following millennium it 
overspread most of northern China. 

It then went on to penetrate various marginal areas, notably south- 
ern China, Korea, and western Japan. Soon afterward, however, it 
yielded place in turn to an Age of Iron (of rather archaic type, it is 
true, compared with the one that had already come into being in the 
Near East over half a millennium before). 

Thus our survey reveals to us one outstanding fact, viz, that as civil- 
ization advanced in the Old World, it developed not one but two great 
centers of culture diffusion—the Near East on the one hand, China on 
the other. The latter country has in fact played a civilizing role in 


FAR EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS—BISHOP Shi 


eastern Asia quite worthy of comparison with the better-known one 


assumed 
Rome. 


in the Occident by Babylonia and Egypt, by Greece and 


REFERENCES AND SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 


AspoT, C. G., HkprIGKA, ALES, and BisHop, C. W. 


1938. 


ANDERSSON, 


1929. 


1934. 


BisHop, C. W. 


1925. 


1932a. 
1932b. 


1982c. 


19338a. 


1933b. 


19338c¢. 


Man from the farthest past. Smithsonian Sci. Ser., vol. 7. New York. 

J. G. 

Der Weg die Steppen. Bull. Mus. Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 1, 
pp. 148-163. Stockholm. 

Children of the Yellow Earth: Studies in prehistoric China. London. 


The ritual bullfight. China Journ., vol. 3, No. 12, pp. 630-637, 
December. 

China: Aesthetic development. Enc. Britannica, 14th ed., pp. 546-549. 

The rise of civilization in China with reference to its geographical 
aspects. Geogr. Rev., vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 617-631, October. 

The chronology of ancient China. Journ. Amer. Orient. Soc., vol. 52, 
No. 3, pp. 282-247, September. 

The Neolithic Age in northern China. Antiquity, vol. 7, pp. 389-404, 
December. 

Rhinoceros and wild ox in ancient China. China Journ., vol. 18, No. 6, 
pp. 322-330, June. 

The worship of earth in ancient China. Journ. North China Branch 

Roy. Asiatic Soe., vol. 64, pp. 22-43. Also printed in Excayation of 

a West Han Dynasty Site, pp. 1-20, Shanghai, 1982. 


19384. The beginnings of north and south in China. Pacific Affairs, vol. 7, 
No. 3, pp. 297-825, September. 
1936. A civilization by osmosis—ancient China. Amer. Scholar, vol. 5, sum- 
mer No., pp. 323-326. 
1938a. An ancient Chinese capital: Earthworks at old Ch‘ang-an. An- 
tiquity, vol. 12, pp. 68-78, March. Reprinted in Ann. Rep. Smith- 
sonian Inst. for 1938, pp. 569-578, 1939. 
1938b. Long-houses and dragon-boats. Antiquity, vol. 12, pp. 411-424, De- 
cember. 
Buxton, L. H. DUDLEY. 
1928. China, the land and the people. Oxford. 
CHaAo, Y. R. 
1932. Music, in Zen, Symposium, pp. 82-96. 


Curt, CH‘IAO-TING. 


1936. 


Key economic areas in Chinese history. London. 


CREEL, H. G. 


1935. 


Dragon bones. Asia, March, pp. 176-182. 


1936. The birth of China. New York. 
1987. Studies in early Chinese culture. Baltimore. 
CrESSEY, G. B. 
1934. China’s geographic foundations. New York and London. 
Hopovs, L. 
1927. Folkways in China. London. 
Hopson, G. HE. 
1934. Europe and China: A survey of their relations from the earliest times 


to 1800. London. 


512 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Hv SHIH. 
1932. Religion and philosophy in Chinese history, in Zen, Symposium, pp. 
51-58. 
JANSE, OLOV. 
1930a. Quelques Epeés anciennes trouvées en Chine. Bull. Mus. Far Hast- 
ern Antiquities, No. 2, pp. 67-184. Stockholm. 
1930b. Antiquités Chinoises d’un Charactére Hallistattien. Ibid., pp. 177- 
183. 
KARLBECK, ORVAR. 
1925. Ancient Chinese bronze weapons. China Journ., vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 127- 
183, March. 
IXARLGREN, BERNHARD. 
1923. Sound and symbol in Chinese. London. 
LATOURETTE, K. S. 
1934. The Chinese, their history and culture. 2 vols. New York. 
LAUFER, BERTHOLD. 
1914-1915. Some fundamental ideas of Chinese culture. Journ. Race De- 
velop., vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 160-174. 
1934. Chinese clay figures. Chicago. 
Li Cui. 
1928. The formation of the Chinese people: An anthropological inquiry. 
Harvard Univ. Press. 
1932. Archaeology, in Zen, Symposium, pp. 184-190. 
MASPERO, HENRI. 
1927. La Chine Antique. Paris. 
PoprE-HENNESSY, U. B. 
1923. Early Chinese jades. London. 


Sansom, G. B. 

1932. Japan, a short cultural history. London. 
Tao, L. K. 

1932. Social changes, in Zen, Symposium, pp. 293-304. 
Tine, V. K. 


1932. How China acquired her civilization, in Zen, Symposium, pp. 9-30. 
WILHELM, RICHARD. 
1929. <A short history of Chinese civilization. New York. 
WILLIAMS, E. T. 
1927. China, yesterday and today. 8d ed. New York. 
WILuiAMs, S. WELLS. 
1901. The Middle Kingdom. Rev. ed., 2 vols. New York. 
ZEN, SOPHIA R. CHEN (editress). 
1932. A symposium of Chinese culture. Rev. ed., Shanghai. (Cited as 
“Zen, Symposium.’’) 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop PLATE 2 


1. NEOLITHIC PIT DWELLING, BLOCKED OUT FOR EXCAVATION. 


2. SIMILAR UNDERGROUND HUT. AFTER CLEARING. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop PLATE 4 


1. CHINESE WATER WHEELS MADE OF BAMBOO. 


2. CHINESE SUSPENSION BRIDGE WITH BAMBOO CABLES. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop PLATE 5 


1. JUNKS UNDER SAIL, HANGCHOW BAY, NEAR NINGPO. 


2. SCENE ON UPPER YANGTZE RIVER. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop PLATE 6 


1. TRAVEL BY LAND. 


Loess deposits in distance. 


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The Yangtze Gorges. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop PLATE 7 


1. PILE VILLAGE NEAR YANGTZE RIVER. 


2. COUNTRY VILLAGE, NORTHWESTERN CHINA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop PLATE 8 


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2. TOMB OF CONFUCIUS, JUST NORTH OF HIS BIRTHPLACE. 


PLATE 10 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Bishop 


ANCIENT CHINESE LANCE POINTS AND KNIVES OF BRONZE. 


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CONTOURS OF CULTURE IN INDONESIA? 


By RAYMOND KENNEDY 
Yale University 


[With 12 plates] 


The islands of Indonesia are of exceeding interest to the ethnologist 
for a variety of reasons. This is an ancient area of human habitation, 
where the history of man runs back to its very beginnings. Java Man 
stands at the head of Indonesian genealogy, and he lived hundreds of 
thousands of years ago. Since then, countless waves of migrants have 
moved into the islands. The ancestors of the primitive Tasmanians 
and Australians, the Oceanic Negroes of Melanesia, and the Polyne- 
sians of the Pacific all trod the soil of the Indies in long-past ages. 
The texture of history is deep here, deeper than almost anywhere else 
on earth, 

Another remarkable fact about the Indies is that these historical 
levels have been caught in action, as it were, and preserved until the 
present day. The various tribes of the islands now exhibit in their 
cultures virtually the entire range of civilizations which have existed 
in the past. They represent a living reconstruction of the cultural 
progression that has taken place in the area. The way of life of the 
nomadic Kubu of Sumatra and Punan of Borneo is probably a fairly 
intact survival of general conditions in the archipelago 20,000 years 
ago, and other isolated groups preserve ancient patterns of culture in 
the same manner. The Batak and Gayo, now pushed back into the 
mountainous interior of Sumatra, show the kind of life prevailing 
much more widely in old times; and the Mentaweian and Niassan 
peoples of the remote islands off Sumatra’s west coast present a living 
picture of an even earlier period. The Minangkabau of Sumatra offer 
a good approximation to the culture all the later Malays possessed 
when they first entered the Indies. The Balinese civilization of today 
is a replica of the life of the medieval Hindu-Javanese, before Moham- 
medanism swept over Java in the fifteenth century. Thus the pres- 
ent range of cultures in Indonesia is a kind of living museum, giving 
a composite view of the development of civilization in the area. 


1 Reprinted by permission from The Far Eastern Quarterly, November 1942. 
513 


514 |= ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The Indies also stand out as one of the few remaining parts of the 
world where actively functioning and relatively intact native cultures 
may still be studied. Most of the interior regions have only recently 
been opened up to outside access, many large districts still remain 
virtually untouched by European influence, and the Dutch colonial 
administration has maintained a beneficent, paternalistic attitude to- 
ward its subject peoples, allowing and even encouraging them to con- 
tinue their traditional ways of life with a minimum of interference. 
Probably the greatest factor in preserving the native cultures relatively 
intact is the enormous populations of the tribes, which are increasing 
steadily. In many if not most other “native” areas of the world the 
aboriginal groups have declined markedly in numbers as a result of 
white conquest. In Indonesia, force of numbers has given strength 
in resisting alien influences; and the result is that the islands offer a 
peerless field of research to the ethnologist wishing to study so-called 
primitive societies in action. And, as remarked above, the cultures 
cover an amazingly wide range: all the way from the simplest on earth 
to highly evolved civilizations of long standing. 


RACIAL TYPES 


The Hindu period of Indonesian history began about 1,500 years 
ago; and with it written records start. The ages before this can be 
reconstructed only by inference from archeology and legendry. Long 
before the dawn of written history the ancestors of most of the Indo- 
nesians had entered the islands; probably the last influx of the later 
Malays occurred around 2000 B. C. The only additions after that 
time were the relatively few Hindus, Arabs, Chinese, and, recently, 
Kuropeans. The earliest racial types in the islands have now either 
disappeared, or appear only in very remote tribes. These archaic 
strains are Australoid, Oceanic Negroid, Negrito, and Veddoid. The 
first two passed through the Indies long ago on their way to their 
ultimate homes in Australia and the Melanesian islands. Traces of 
them are still discernible in the present population, particularly in 
the easternmost islands of the Lesser Sundas, the Flores-Timor zone. 
The Negritos, the dwarf Negroid stock, also apparently very ancient 
in the Indies, are now pretty well submerged, but in a few places there 
are tribes showing Negrito characteristics. Mostly they dwell in the 
remoter districts: the swamps of east Sumatra, the mountainous back- 
country of the eastern Lesser Sundas, and the deep interior of New 
Guinea. The primitive, frail-boned Veddoid stock has also been 
forced out into the poorer swamp and jungle country of south Su- 
matra, interior Borneo and Celebes, and the eastern islands of In- 
donesia. 


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INDONESIA—KEN NEDY O15 


The two main racial strains are the proto-Malay and the deutero- 
Malay, or, as we shall call them, the earlier and the later Malays. 
Both of these racial types are small, brown-skinned, and wavy- or 
straight-haired; but the earlier Malays, who came into the islands 
from the mainland of Asia before the later stock, are generally more 
“Caucasoid” in facial appearance, shorter, more wavy-haired, and nar- 
rower-headed. The later Malay type looks much more Mongoloid, 
has predominantly coarse and straight hair, and is very broad-headed. 
Whereas the earlier stock is now restricted mainly to the interior dis- 
tricts of the large western islands and to the remoter eastern parts 
of the archipelago, the later Malay strain predominates in the coastal 
areas of western Indonesia, and has only recently spread in appreci- 
able force to the eastern islands. 

The cultural differentiation runs parallel with the physical, in gen- 
eral. Thus the tribes of’ earlier Malay type, inhabiting the more 
inaccessible regions, are still largely pagan in religion, only partially 
influenced by Hindu civilization or Mohammedanism, lack many of 
the more advanced techniques of material culture, and preserve ancient 
features of social organization. The later Malays, living mostly in 
coastal districts, have undergone strong Hinduist acculturation and 
are now nearly all Mohammedan in religion, possess a wide repertory 
of manufacturing techniques, and have long since adopted centralized 
state forms of government. 


LANGUAGES 


Despite these differences, which are due mainly to the relative loca- 
tions of the two racial types, there are innumerable elements of cul- 
tural similarity prevailing throughout the islands. 

One of these is language. AI] the peoples of Indonesia, with only 
three exceptions, speak languages belonging to the same basic stock, 
the Malayo-Polynesian or Austronesian, which also spreads over most 
of the Oceanic islands, the Philippines, part of southeastern Asia, and 
Madagascar. The three exceptions are the natives of northern Hal- 
mahera in the Moluccas, eastern Alor in the Lesser Sundas, and inte- 
rior New Guinea. For want of a better term, these languages are 
lumped together as “Papuan,” which means merely that they do not 
belong to the Austronesian stock but have not yet been properly classi- 
fied otherwise. Few of the Indonesians can read and write. Those 
who do use either an ancient kind of script, derived from Hindu writ- 
ing, or the Arabic alphabet. Recently, the schools established by 
the government and the missionaries have spread knowledge of the 
Roman alphabet over many districts. Some of the more primitive 
tribes, such as the Batak and Redjang of Sumatra, are able to write 


516 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


in the archaic Hindu-derived script, but this is rapidly giving way 
to Arabic and Roman writing. 


ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES 


The principal economic activity is agriculture. Some groups still 
subsist largely by hunting and gathering wild products. These in- 
clude the nomadic Kubu tribes of Sumatra, the Punan of Borneo, and 
a few of the remoter peoples of the eastern islands. The archipelago 
can be divided into three main agricultural zones, each distinguished 
by its principal crop. The western rice zone includes all the Greater 
Sunda Islands (Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and Java), and the west- 
ern Lesser Sundas (Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa). The central maize 
area, where corn is the mainstay of subsistence, covers the eastern 
Lesser Sundas and most of the southern Moluccas, as well as the Sula 
Islands in the northern Moluccas. The eastern sago zone, where the 
natives obtain their basic food supply from the meal of the sago palm, 
includes some of the southern Moluccas, nearly all of the northern 
Moluccas, and runs over into New Guinea. This is the general picture, 
to which minor exceptions could be made in a more detailed survey. 
Also, these areas are not mutually exclusive; maize is grown in 
regions where rice is predominant, and vice versa; while sago eaters 
in many instances also plant both rice and maize. Other crops, too, 
are cultivated, such as coconuts, yams, taro, and several varieties of 
vegetables, but the three main products are rice, maize, and sago. 
Wet rice, grown on irrigated fields, was introduced into the islands 
later than dry rice, which is planted in dry earth after the fields have 
been cleared and burned over. Irrigated rice agriculture has yet to 
reach the interior regions of the large western islands, and is almost 
totally unknown in the eastern parts of the Indies. Even dry rice has 
not spread to the easternmost islands, ror to some of the remoter dis- 
tricts of the Greater Sundas. It appears thus that rice is not a very 
ancient product of Indonesia, and that before it was introduced, per- 
haps about 2,000 years ago, yams, taro, and millet were the staple 
crops. Maize, an American plant, came only recently to the Indies, 
of course. The areas where it is now the staple formerly had millet 
as the main crop. 

Dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, and goats are the oldest domesticated ani- 
mals of Indonesia, and are found in nearly every district. Water 
buffalo and cattle, however, would appear to be much more recent, 
and are still absent in many parts of the Indies. Horses and sheep 
are the newest additions among the animals, the former having prob- 
ably been introduced by the Hindus and the latter by the Europeans. 
Animal husbandry, except for the raising of pigs and chickens, is 
relatively unimportant in Indonesian economy, and the native diet 


INDONESIA—-KEN NEDY 517 


includes far more fish than meat. Fishing, indeed, ranks second only 
to agriculture as a source of food. 


HOUSES 


Nearly all the houses of the Indies peoples are rectangular structures 
of wood or bamboo, with thatched roofs. In most regions they are 
raised up on piles, and this appears to be the more ancient type of con- 
struction. In Java and a few other places the natives build their 
dwellings directly on the ground, evidently a newer practice. In Bal, 
such buildings have clay walls rather than wood or bamboo, but this is 
a unique case. The Indonesian pile houses range in size all the way 
from the small single-family Malay structures to the enormous Borneo 
longhouses, often measuring hundreds of feet in length. There are 
isolated instances of divergent house types, such as the simple tempo- 
rary shelters of nomadic tribes, the “beehive” circular dwellings found 
in parts of Timor and Flores and the little island of Engano off Suma- 
tra, the floating raft huts of the Akit of Sumatra, and the round or 
oval roofed houses of the Land Dyak in Borneo, the northern Halma- 
herans, the Savunese, and the northern Niassans. Some of these, par- 
ticularly the “beehive” structures, probably represent very ancient 
types which have now disappeared from most of the archipelago. 
Stone is almost never used for buildings in the Indies, but sculptured 
monuments of impressive size are erected by the Batak of Sumatra, 
the people of Nias off the west Sumatra coast, and the Sumbanese. 
Less pretentious stonework is done in many other regions, and the 
widespread occurrence of old megalithic remains throughout the 
archipelago indicates that in the past the use of stone for nonutilitar- 
ian, probably mostly religious, purposes was much more prevalent than 
it is at present. Under Hindu influence, Indonesian stone workman- 
ship attained its supreme height in medieval Java. The Javanese have 
now lost this art, but it still flourishes in Bali. 


HANDICRAFTS 


There are many places in Indonesia where the craft of weaving has 
vet to penetrate. There the natives, especially in central Celebes, 
make their clothes of bark cloth, which was once the only dress fabric 
known in the islands, except for matwork and leaf garments. Weav- 
ing arrived relatively late in the Indies and shows two levels of de- 
velopment. The older type of weaving, found in the more isolated 
districts, is done on a back-bar loom, which has one end of the frame 
attached to the weaver’s body. The more complicated looms have fixed 
frames. Metalworking evidently predated weaving in the archipel- 
ago, and has spread much more widely. Indeed, only the most primi- 

566766—44———34 


518 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


tive Indonesians lack the ability to manufacture articles of metal. 
Pottery, though undoubtedly a very ancient craft, is poorly done. It 
appears that the ready availability of bamboo and gourd containers in- 
hibited the development of clay vessels in the area. Matwork and 
basketry and wood carving are universal handicrafts, practiced by 
even the lowliest tribes. The highest development of material culture 
occurs, however, in metal and woven artifacts, the finest of all Indones- 
ian products being the ceremonial krisses and the beautifully batikked 
and ikatted (tie-dyed) textiles. 

The most primitive peoples wear bark-cloth loin wrappings, al- 
though in New Guinea even these scanty coverings are dispensed 
with in some districts. The loincloth for men and the short kilt for 
women carry over into many tribes where woven fabrics are used, 
but the standard costume of the more advanced regions consists of a 
sarong and blouse for women, and a sarong or trousers and shirt for 
men, all made from either locally woven material or trade cloth. Body 
ornaments are most elaborate on intermediate levels of culture— 
among the earlier Malay peoples of Borneo, Celebes, and Sumatra, for 
instance—and decrease in quantity and variety on either end of the 
cultural spectrum, among the most primitive and the most civilized 
groups. The most popular decorations are headdresses, ear pendants, 
necklaces, and arm and leg rings. 

Artificial mutilation of the body, for the purpose of beautification 
and sometimes with social and religious implications, reaches an 
amazing development in Indonesia. Virtually universal are ear 
piercing, often involving extreme distension of the lobes and incision 
of the upper part of the ear as well, and filing of the front teeth, 
either to points, or horizontally, or with grooves on the outer surface. 
Almost as prevalent is mutilation of the male sex organ. The older 
practice is supercision, or splitting the upper part of the prepuce 
without removing any flesh. Evidently more recent, and largely 
confined to Mohammedan regions, is true circumcision, or cutting off 
the prepuce entirely. Incision of the female genitals is so closely 
coextensive with circumcision that it would appear to be a later, and 
perhaps associated, practice. A few tribes in Borneo and Celebes 
pierce the penis for the insertion of knobbed rods or similar devices, 
the purpose being purely erotic—to augment the sensation of women 
in coitus. Tattooing is now confined mainly to the less advanced 
places, but formerly was much more widespread in the archipelago. 
Borneo, incidentally, is probably the greatest tattooing region in 
the world. The foregoing are the principal forms of bodily mutila- 
tion in the Indies. Sporadic occurrences of artificial head deforma- 
tion, scarification by burning and cutting, body painting and stippling 
with resin, and hair bleaching with lime complete the list, except for 
nose piercing, which is confined to New Guinea. 


INDONESIA—KEN NEDY 519 


Spears, swords, and shields are, or were, virtually universal weapons 
in the islands. The bow and blowgun also find widespread use; but 
the former is more general in eastern Indonesia, the latter in the west- 
ern part. This probably means that the blowgun is a more recent 
weapon than the bow. Clubs and slings are rare, but appear to have 
been more important in ancient times. One mention of returning 
boomerangs appears in the literature; they are used as toys in a section 
of central Celebes. 

Although the more advanced peoples of the archipelago have built 
and navigated large sailing ships for centuries, the Indonesian boat 
par excellence is the dugout canoe with outriggers. With very few 
exceptions, the outriggers extend from both sides of the canoe. The 
attachments of the floats to the booms become more complicated 
toward the eastern parts of the Indies, and in the Moluccas a wide 
variety of outrigger styles can be seen. Transportation of goods 
overland, except in areas where animals take the place of human 
porters, regularly involves the use of back baskets, with lines going 
over the forehead or shoulders, or both, in all the primitive parts of 
Indonesia. The balance pole has replaced the back basket in most 
of the more advanced regions. 


SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 


The social organization of the Indonesian peoples shows three 
levels of development. First there are the few modern cities, where 
the natives are partly Europeanized. Then there are the native 
states, still semi-independent in most cases, a form of organization 
originally imported in Hindu times about 1,500 years ago. Before 
that, the social systems of the Indies had never developed beyond the 
tribal or village-community stage, which is the third, and by far the 
most important, level even today in most of the islands. The tribes 
have little functional significance generally; the basic unit of native 
government and social organization is the village community, and 
each of these small groups lives almost entirely independent of the 
others—politically and economically—even within the same tribal 
area, Where life is still nomadic, the same pattern holds, and the 
small bands of wandering Kubu and Punan are functionally discrete 
units. The prevailing style of government, in both nomadic and 
settled tribes, is democratic. Chiefs are chosen by general consent, 
even where the office passes down through a single family line, for an 
unsuitable successor will be deposed by his people. Moreover, the 
village councils, composed of all or nearly all the adult males as a 
rule, exercise effective control over the actions of the chiefs. Eco- 
nomically, too, the Indonesian communities are basically democratic, 
with communal ownership of land and little class distinction on the 


520 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


basis of wealth. Despotism in government and marked inequality in 
property ownership are in nearly all cases traceable to “higher 
civilization.” 

In most parts of the islands, the only important social unit besides 
the community is the family, or rather the extended family, for the 
Indonesians lay more emphasis on the remoter degrees of kinship than 
do Europeans and Americans. The majority of the tribes reckon re- 
lationship on both the maternal and the paternal sides, as we do; but 
in certain groups either the female or the male lineage determines a 
person’s family membership. Throughout Java, Borneo, and Celebes, 
the bilateral type of family prevails; but in most of Sumatra, the 
Lesser Sundas, and some of the Moluccas, either matrilineal or patri- 
lineal kinship schemes predominate. The kind of relationship sys- 
tem that a tribe employs determines the marriage rules. Thus, while 
all groups taboo primary incest (marriage with parents or brothers 
or sisters), those with the “mother family” extend the prohibition of 
marriage to quite distant degrees of relationship on the mother’s side, 
but may allow even first-cousin marriage if the parties are connected 
by way of their fathers. Exactly opposite rules apply in groups 
with the “father family.” In parts of Sumatra and in some islands 
of eastern Indonesia, matrilineal and patrilineal systems of kinship 
become vastly elaborated by the development of clans. Where this 
occurs in a patrilineal tribe, the taboo on marriage applies to all mem- 
bers of the father’s clan, no matter how distantly related; while in 
matrilineal tribes all persons in the mother’s clan are forbidden as 
mates. Generally, also, the mode of reckoning descent governs place 
of residence after marriage—i. e., with the wife’s or the husband’s 
people—although in many bilateral kinship areas, notably Borneo 
and Celebes, even though male relationship is considered as important 
as female, a married couple nearly always reside among the wife’s 
people. 

In eastern Sumbawa, Flores, and the Alor-Solor Islands, totemism, 
or belief in the descent of clans from animals or plants, occurs; and 
in some districts here the clans are grouped in marriage classes, with 
complicated rules of intergroup mating, a pattern strikingly remi- 
niscent of certain New Guinea, Melanesian, and Australian social 
systems, 

NATIVE RELIGION 


Indonesian native religion rests basically upon three partly over- 
lapping and partly independent sets of concepts, i. e., beliefs con- 
cerning magical power, spirits of various kinds, and the ghosts of the 
dead. Even where Hinduism, and later Mohammedanism and Christi- 
anity, have affected the beliefs and practices of the people, the ancient 


INDONESIA—KEN NEDY 521 


pagan cults persist and strongly color the more recently adopted 
religions. The magical concepts emerge in the head-hunting com- 
plex, for hunting of ‘heads’ is preeminently a religious duty, calculated 
to enrich the supply of spiritual force of a community by capturing 
heads, and the supernatural power they contain, from some other 
group. Many of the rituals of the native tribes have the same pur- 
pose, and priests and priestesses are regarded as experts in the tech- 
nique of gaining access to and drawing upon the store of magical force 
that pervades the universe. Mostly the purpose is beneficent—to heal 
the sick, improve crops, and the like—but black magic can be used 
against enemies. The spirit beliefs and practices are more specific 
than those connected with magic. The rituais are “pointed” at cer- 
tain recognized spirits, whose properties and powers are known. 
Some of these beings are good, others bad; and the principal purpose 
of the spirit cult is to gain the favor of the former in combating the 
malevolent designs of the latter. Most of the tribes have ideas con- 
cerning the existence of pantheons of high gods, but these deities are 
too lofty and remote to exercise much immediate influence over lowly 
humans. Therefore the lesser spirits—of the earth, water, air, and 
sacred places—occupy a more vital and intimate place in the native 
religions. 

Probably the most ‘Hiconsine cult in Indonesia, as in much of 
eastern Asia, has to do with the ghosts of the dead and the ancestors. 
The funeral eeeronies of the Indies are more elaborate than perhaps 
anywhere else in the world, and sacrifices to the departed ghosts, who 
are powerful intermediaries between their living relatives and the gods 
and spirits, must never be neglected. Fear of and respect for ances- 
tors, whose existence in the afterlife is vividly real to the Indonesians, 
make for stubborn conservatism, because the ancestors are sure to be 
angered by any change in the ways they were used to on earth, and 
will withdraw their favors from the living if the old customs are not 
preserved. 

Despite later infusions of Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Chris- 
tianity, the base of Indonesian religion is still paganism, the tradi- 
tional beliefs and practices of the ancestors. “Conversion” usually 
means merely taking on new names for old things. Nevertheless cer- 
tain areas have been strongly influenced by alien religions. Bali is 
unique in preserving the old Hinduist religion, which 600 years ago 
was the faith of all Java and most of Sumatra. Mohammedanism, 
of varying degrees of “purity,” has since spread over nearly all of 
Sumatra, Java, and the coastal lands of Borneo and Celebes. It is 
steadily making converts throughout the eastern islands, some of 
which—notably Lombok and Sumbawa—are nominally almost com- 
pletely Islamized. Christianity has never been able to make headway 


522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


in previously Mohammedanized regions; indeed, the areas of influence 
of the two religions are mutually exclusive to a marked degree. De- 
spite centuries of missionary effort and enormous expenditures in 
Mohammedan Java, for instance, there are now only about 200,000 
Christians there, and probably not more than half of these are natives. 
Christianity has made best progress among formerly pagan tribes: 
the Batak of Sumatra, the Toradja and Minahasa of Celebes, and the 
Amboinese of the Moluccas. 

In general, the contours of culture in Indonesia display a strikingly 
regular pattern of stratification. In the far eastern islands and in the 
deep interior regions of the larger land masses, the most archaic racial 
types and cultures are preserved. In the more accessible inland dis- 
tricts of the Greater Sundas and in the westerly islands of the Lesser 
Sundas, the racial stock is of the earlier Malay type and the level 
of culture is “intermediate.” Finally, in the coastlands of western 
Indonesia, one finds the most recent physical types and cultural accre- 
tions, which are steadily spreading inland and eastward into the terri- 
tories where until today the ancient peoples of the Indies carry on 
their age-old traditions in the shadow of impending change. 


(qsuny 
“¢ Aq ydeisojoyg) “du Aysep pues posseidep yeyMomos B 
sey ‘Jey pue opm ysnoy) ‘esou oy “3 ‘e) sj1e1q Telok’ Uendeg (neoing UOleulojuy SpuvployJaN Asoqino0,)) 
pue PlOIsON UBISOUBATY JO 9IN}XIUT B SMOYS 9dAQ [BOISAYd OY, ‘ornytod uodurod oy} WOTYSses 07 pasn st Jopulpéo Tey y “ley 
A|[OOM PUB SAIN}BI PIOIGAN YIM ‘od Aq [RoIskyd uBlsouURpey AUT, 


“SaMILLY AAILSSA NI 
“SAYOTS ‘VHNLNVYV] AO SAILYN “2 “YOW!IL “ONVdNy AO AAILVYN “1 


3LY1d p Aposuueawn—"c44} ‘JUOday uPIUOsSUITIWIC 


‘yBqeg om) 


JO aqI1Iqns O1BY 94 JO oI4sl1ojoBIeYO SI ssoppBoy oHT[MoT[Id oy “ABR ‘ain} xu (plojosuoyyy) 
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VYLVWNS “THID HVLVgG OYUVH °“Z “SSAHLONWD ONIMYOM NI STYID ASANVAVE *1 


% 


Sa ES ee 


c 3ALV 1d Apauuay—*¢ 66 | *yuoday UeTUOsy UIC 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Kennedy PLATE 3 


1. BATAK WOMEN AND GIRLS, SUMATRA, SHOWING THE PROTO-MALAY 
(CAUCASOID) PHYSICAL TYPE. 


2. SETI OF CENTRAL CERAM DOING A WAR DANCE. 


The physical type is the so-called Alfur, the proto-Malay and Papuan hybrid characteristic of the Moluccas. 
(Courtesy Bataviaasch Genootschap.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Kennedy PLATE 4 


1. NIAS WOMEN DANCING, IN FESTIVE DRESS. 


The Niassans, on special occasions, wear elaborate double earrings, headdresses, and armbands. 


2. MENTAWEI WOMEN FISHING, SHOWING LEAF CLOTHING. 
These people cannot weave, but make their garments of either bark cloth or leaves. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Kennedy 


1. DYAK GROUP, WESTERN BORNEO, SHOWING WEAPONS AND WAIST 
RINGS OF BRASS AND RATTAN WORN BY WOMEN. 


2. BAHAU DYAK GROUP, SHOWING DISTENDED EAR LOBES AND, CENTER REAR, 
PANTHER-TOOTH EAR ORNAMENTS WHICH MAY BE WORN ONLY BY SUCCESSFUL 
HEAD HUNTERS. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Kennedy PLATE 6 


1. MINANGKABAU LONGHOUSE, SUMATRA. 


All Minangkabau buildings have graceful saddle-shaped roofs. (Courtesy Netherlands Information 
Bureau.) 


ie 
2. TOBA BATAK VILLAGE, SUMATRA, SHOWING THE SLOPING GABLES 
OF THE HOUSES OF THIS SUBTRIBE. 


(Photograph by E. E. Muhs.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Kennedy PLATE 7 


Wty gi RCP) 


i 
Ah | {a jy) 


Gy ig, 
ASvige ann 


¥ 


= 
RAIS yaar» 


Se 
rg 
ab 
2, HOUSES IN NIAS WITH MASSIVE TIMBERS, CARVED AND PAINTED 
GABLES, AND HOODED ROOFS. 


Sculptured stone monuments dedicated to ancestors, in foreground, on paved village plaza. (Courtesy 
Netherlands Information Bureau.) 


PLATE 8 


Kennedy 


Smithsonian Report, 1943. 


coe ated 


Ke 
se 


5 if 
ae 
FFD oe 


MINANGKABAU OF SUMATRA IN CEREMONIAL COSTUME. 


These richly brocaded garments are heirlooms 


TJUN U9}}IIM JOADU SBM Ye 
IN, 942 Ul pojutid st 194sod ey, 


S39V4ad YSH NO ONIIddIlS “YVASDOGVAH SALVYOSV1F AGNV WAIEWA YOANN S.YOIeyVM 
NISSYM HLIM ‘SSS371FD ‘NYWOM VFAVYOL ‘2 AHL ONIGNTIONI “AWNLSOD IWINOWSAYAD NI SVIN AO NVW (1 


jo Speed ne 
Heyer Dipo ie, Sy 


SOMA 


6 3ALV1d Apauuay—"¢p6| “q4odayy ueruosyyiwG 


Ol 


‘yI1Bq 918 SSUOIBS 19Y40 9Y} ‘3u0IVS (padp-a14) yoyt Ue ‘19\Ued oY UT 
“STYID ASANIIVE “2 


“SNIHLOWD ATIALS Nvado0ung 
-INAS NI NYVW AHL ‘31dNOD ASANVAVE ‘1 


43aLV1d 


Apauuey “Cr6l *quodayy uerTuosy IWS 


“SA8gO07 Y¥VF AHL AO NOISNALSIOC “SILNIOd OL 
ONIMOHS ‘OANHOG “MHVAC NVHV “2 Gall4d HL3ASAL HLIM THIS ISAMVLNAW (1 


L} aLv1d Apauuayy—"¢p6| ‘Woday ueiuosyyrug 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Kennedy PLATE 12 


1. SADANG BURIAL CAVES, CELEBES, CHISELED IN THE FACE OF A CLIFF. 


They have wooden doors and carved guardian images. (Courtesy Netherlands Information Bureau.) 


2. PALACE OF THE SULTAN OF SIAK, EASTERN SUMATRA. 


Siak is one of the scores of native states which the Dutch ruled ‘“‘indirectly,’’ retaining the hereditary princes 
in office. 


THE ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY OF THE MIDDLE EAST 


By Arir I. TANNoUS 
Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations, U. S. Department of Agriculture 


[With 14 plates] 
THE REGION AND THE PEOPLE 


Despite the fact that it consists.of five political entities—Palestine, 
Trans-Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq—the region under considera- 
tion is in reality one cultural unit. Its geographic boundaries are 
determined by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, forming a coast line 
of about 750 kilometers; the Sinai and Arabian deserts and the Persian 
Gulf on the south; the Kurdistan Mountains on the east; and the 
Taurus Mountains of Turkey on the north. These boundaries enclose 
an area of about 770,000 square kilometers (800,000 square miles), of 
which not more than 85,000 square kilometers (32,000 square miles) are 
under cultivation by village settlements. The rest of the area consists 
of arid, sandy deserts and semiarid plateaus over which the nomadic 
Bedouins graze their herds. 

An interesting variety of topographical and climatic features is en- 
countered as one moves inland from the seashore. A narrow coastal 
plain, with high soil fertility and an altitude of less than 100 meters 
(about 330 feet), stretches from the Egyptian frontier in the south to 
the Turkish frontier in the north. In most places the coastal strip 
does not exceed 1 or 2 kilometers in width. Parallel with the coast 
and rising abruptly from it, extends a rugged mountain range, reach- 
ing its maximum height of over 3,000 meters (over 10,000 feet) in the 
Lebanon section. To the east of, and parallel with, the Lebanon 
Mountains rises the equally rugged but slightly lower Anti-Lebanon 
Range. Between the two ranges lies the high and fertile plateau of 
Bika’. In contrast with these high mountains is the Jordan valley 
depression in Palestine, with an altitude of about 100-800 meters (330- 
990 feet) below sea level. In the northeastern corner of the region 
stands the third significant mountain range, which is a continuation of 
the Taurus and Kurdistan Ranges. The remaining greater portion 
of the region consists of extensive semiarid plains and plateaus. The 
only two extensive river valleys are those of the Tigris and Euphrates, 


523 


524 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


running across Iraq from north to south. Smaller rivers are the 
Orontis in Syria, the Leontis in Lebanon, and the Jordan in Palestine. 
Along with this varied topography, a similar variation in climatic 
conditions is encountered. Along the coastal plain prevails the Med- 
iterranean type of climate—a short and mild winter in which rain is 
concentrated, and a long, damp, and warm summer in which no rain 
falls. Here rainfall is relatively heavy, especially in the northern ° 
section where it reaches an average of over 30 inches per year. On the 
mountain heights snowfall is heavy during the winter, whereas the 
summer is cool, bracing, and dry. In the interior there is a marked 
variation in temperature between day and night and between summer 
and winter. Here rainfall is scanty. In addition to the above varie- 
ties, there is the subtropical climate of the Jordan depression in Pales- 
tine and of the Persian Gulf area of Iraq. 

Between 9 and 10 million people live within the boundaries of this 
region. What strikes attention first is their pattern of ,distribution. 
As expected, the fertile coastal plains and river valleys are densely 
populated, whereas the extensive semiarid plains and plateaus of the 
interior support a sparse population. Coming to the Lebanon Moun- 
tains, however, we find a high population density of over 100 per 
square kilometer (260 per square mile). This is so despite the fact 
that these mountains are extremely rugged and their soil scanty. 
Obviously, not only geographical but also cultural factors must be 
taken into consideration in accounting for this apparent anomaly. 
Religious and political conflicts during the old Turkish regime forced 
the Christian minority to congregate and take refuge in the mountain 
heights. 

A second feature of the population is the existence of a high birth 
rate and a high death rate, especially in the villages. Early marriage, 
emphasis upon family life as a major value, and the polygynous fea- 
ture of the Muslim religion are some of the cultural factors respon- 
sible for a birth rate that ranges from 30 to 45 per thousand. This is 
more than double the rate for the United States of America. On the 
other hand, a death rate of 20 to 28 prevails, which also is much 
higher than the rate in the United States. A natural increase in 
population, however, has been the net result. With the advent of 
modern medical knowledge and sanitation, an acceleration in the rate 
of increase may be expected. 

With respect to racial composition, the population of the region 
shows a marked degree of admixture. It is true that a relatively high 
degree of racial purity exists among the Bedouin tribes of the interior. 
This purity, however, which is the result of relative isolation and 
consequent inbreeding, becomes in general less and less evident as 
ene moves away from the center toward the periphery, especially the 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS ae 


Mediterranean coastal area. Varieties of eye color, pigmentation, 
hair texture, and stature can be readily observed. Such a situation 
can be expected as a result of the fact that the region under consider- 
ation has been, since time immemorial, one of the most strategic meet- 
ing places of races, cultures, and nations. A large number of ancient 
peoples, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hebrews, Persians, Hittites, Phoe- 
nicians, and others, met there, intermixed, and succeeded one an- 
other. Then followed the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, and 
Turks, each contributing its racial strain to the already existing mix- 
ture. What is of primary significance in this connection is the out- 
standing fact that racial consciousness is practically nonexistent 
among the people. This is primarily a result of the predominant 
religion of Islam which accords equality to all Muslims in this life 
and the life to come, irrespective of color and lineage. It is well 
known that under the influence of their religious message the Arabs 
intermarried freely with the various races they conquered. 

A fourth aspect of the population is its rural-urban composition. 
Here we have a situation that is heavily biased in favor of rural cul- 
ture. A genuinely urban way of life is limited to the few main cities 
of the region: Baghdad, Basrah, and Mosul in Iraq; Aleppo, Damas- 
cus, Antioch, Homs, and Hama in Syria; Beirut, Tripoli, and Sidon 
in Lebanon; and Jerusalem, Jafa, and Haifa in Palestine. Conse- 
quently, between 65 and 80 percent of the inhabitants of these coun- 
tries can be considered rural. A small minority of these are still 
in the nomadic stage, whereas the great majority are fellahin, agri- 
cultural people settled in villages. 

Finally, with respect to the cultural composition of the population, 
one encounters a situation similar in its diversity of elements to that 
of racial composition discussed above. For thousands of years this 
part of the world has been a center of dynamic cultural contact. As 
nation followed nation on that stage, from the ancient Babylonians, 
Assyrians, and Egyptians to the western powers of today, cultures 
developed, met, selected and borrowed, invented, and passed on their 
heritage to future generations. Thus the past lays a heavy hand 
indeed upon the culture of the Middle East. Within this diversity 
of cultural origins, the Arabs, who have occupied the region since 
the middle of the seventh century A. D., have been able to achieve a 
stable integration, giving the prevailing culture a predominantly 
Arab orientation. Their religion of Islam is now embraced by about 
85 percent of the population. Arabic, the language in which the 
Muslims believe that Allah revealed the Qor’an (Koran), is the 
mother tongue of each one of these countries. Dialects may differ 
from locality to locality, but written Arabic is the same for all. 
Other main cultural values and practices have been either modified 


526 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


or originated by the Arabs and more or less uniformly spread through- 
out the region. Among these are emphasis upon family solidarity, 
exaltation of individual prowess and daring, group consciousness and 
identity rather than individualism, hospitality, and the predominance 
of the personal touch in all types of human relationships. The way 
in which a cup of coffee is prepared and served and its symbolic 
significance are practically the same in the Muslim villages of southern 
Palestine and in the Christian villages on the high slopes of Lebanon. 
Similarly, everywhere there is heavy dependence upon bread as the 
main staple in the diet and the same reverent attitude toward it. 


THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY 
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 


Everywhere in the Middle East, whether on the coastal plains or 
on the high mountain slopes, on the interior plateaus or in the river 
valleys, the village type of rural settlement prevails. Unlike the 
North American pattern, practically no isolated farmsteads or rural] 
neighborhoods exist between the villages. Farmers and animals live 
in the village, from which they go out daily to work in the surround- 
ing fields and come back in the evening. The origin and evolution 
of the village type of settlement in this, the oldest part of the world, 
is lost in the remote and obscure past. It is certain that the village 
was there long before Biblical times. How long ago and in what 
manner it developed, whether directly as such or gradually along a 
line of several stages, is a matter that is still open for speculation. 
One can reasonably conclude, as did Professor Sanderson, that de- 
velopment possibly followed a line of transition from the nomadic 
tribe to the subagricultural group, to the semipermanent village, to 
the permanent village settlement. This explanation seems to gain 
support from the contemporary existence in the Middle East of the 
older stages of settlement. In fact, one can observe the process of 
transition actually taking place. In general, it can be readily seen 
that as one moves from the coastal areas and river valleys toward 
the interior, villages assume less and less of a permanent character, 
until pure nomadism is reached. The large Bedouin tribe of Fa’oor, 
who used to roam with its herds over a wide area along the borders 
of Syria, Palestine, and Trans-Jordan is now in the process of transi- 
tion. ‘The Emir of the tribe and his brothers are rapidly developing 
into feudal lords. They and their entourage occupy a compound of 
modern stone buildings, whereas around the compound one still sees 
the old tents of the Arab nomads. Some branches of the tribe have 
begun to live in more permanent dwellings, made of reed cane or of 


* Sanderson, Dwight, The rural community, chaps. 2 and 3. Ginn and Company, 1932. 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 527 


stone. They still follow the seasons with their herds, but in addition 
they now cultivate the soil and raise crops. In the Jordan valley of 
Palestine, as well as in several places in Syria and Iraq, various stages 
of the same process of transition can be observed. Even in Lebanon, 
where permanent village settlement has been established since ancient 
times, the writer came across modified forms of the original nomadic 
and seminomadic stages. 


LOCATION 


The factors responsible for determining the location of each village 
are many and varied. A few of them, however, seem to be more out- 
standing and more common than others. An obvious one of these is 
the availability of water supply. The significance of this factor can 
be better apppreciated when one is reminded of the fact that rainfall 
in the region is scanty (not exceeding 10 inches per year in most 
places) and that all of it is concentrated during 3 or 4 months of the 
fall and winter seasons. In Lebanon, where snow accumulates on 
the mountain tops, springs are abundant, and practically every village 
has one or more of these running through it or just outside its limits. 
The people use such village springs both for human consumption and 
for irrigitation. In most of the villages of the interior, where run- 
ning springs are scarce, the necessary water is obtained from wells, 
which are sunk to varying depths until the underground water table 
is struck. In other places cisterns are used, which are filled with rain 
water and which supplement other sources. Another way of supple- 
menting the water supply is to dig a large and shallow pit just outside 
the village proper and make use of the accumulated rain water. In 
river valleys, naturally, direct use is made of the river water. 

A second factor in the choice of a location is the matter of defense. 
Almost invariably, whether on the mountain heights, in the interior 
plains, or in the river valleys, one finds that the settlers have chosen 
the site that best lent itself to defense. This was essential in early 
times in the face of attacks from other villages or from marauding 
Bedouins. Hilltops, bluffs, and invincible shoulders of deep ravines 
afforded such easily defensible sites. It must be observed that this 
factor has lost its significance in the greater part of the region, in view 
of the prevailing public security. 

Fertility of the soil has been another determining factor. ‘This is 
to be expected in view of the fact that the village people are dependent 
almost completely upon agriculture for a living. Through the use of 
farmyard manure in some places, or the development of a suitable crop 
rotation in others, the people did their best to maintain the fertility 
of the land as long as possible. Permanent and continuous settlement 
on the same land for generations made the application of some conser- 


528 |§ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


vation techniques imperative. This has been singularly successful in 
the Lebanon Mountains where terracing and manuring have been 
extensively used. In some places, especially where manure is used 
for fuel, soil depletion could not be avoided. 

It must be pointed out that in some cases all these factors of location, 
as well as others not mentioned, have been equally operative. On the 
other hand, we find a great number of villages in which one or more 
of the required conditions had to be neglected in favor of others that 
seemed more compelling. Such is the case of the Kura Valley in 
northern Lebanon, which offered the settlers an extremely fertile soil, 
but no adequate water supply. For a long time before underground 
water was discovered in some places, village people had to depend upon 
rain water and upon a running stream several miles away. All the 
villages on the rugged Lebanon slopes serve as an illustration of the 
predominance of the defense factor, which was eagerly sought by 
religious minorities. 


PHYSICAL STRUCTURE 


A compact, nucleated form of structure is the first striking impres- 
sion one gets of the Middle Eastern village. It is a conglomeration 
of houses standing close to each other, divided by winding alleys and 
paths that do not seem to have any regular design. In parts of some 
villages the houses are so close together that one can walk or jump 
from roof to roof without much difficulty. In other villages the 
houses are scattered enough to leave room for small garden plots. To 
a casual observer such a mass of dwelling places shows no evidence of 
differentiation. Upon investigation, one finds that the people are con- 
scious of the existence of certain sections in their village. Each one 
of these is called a Hara or a Het’, which is usually the habitat of one 
kinship group. In this we see a carry-over from the tribal organiza- 
tion and an indication of the significance of family in the early devel- 
opment of the community. 

Normally, the mosque or the church stands as the physical and cul- 
tural center of the settlement. Dwellings are erected on all sides of 
this center by the original family groups. As a family multiplies, its 
dwelling place also multiplies by a process of “budding.” Under the 
influence of a strongly partilocal system, in which the wife comes to 
reside with her husband’s people, the newly married couple add one 
more room on top or to the side of the groom’s ancestral house where 
the rest of the family dwell. For generations this process of budding 
has been going on, resulting in the entangled mass of houses described 
above. Next to the church or mosque is the Saha, an open space where 
people hold social gatherings or present their produce for sale. In 
the villages of the interior, where regular biweekly or monthly mar- 
kets are held, the Saha is of a fairly large size. Normally, the few 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 529 


existing stores are located around this central space. In large vil- 
lages, or those that have two religious sects, two centers exist. Such 
settlements may be designated as bicentral. 

With respect to the structure of dwelling places, the following main 
forms may be distinguished. Tents, made mainly of goat hair, are 
used exclusively by the nomads. Shacks made of reed cane can be 
observed in marshy localities, such as exist in northern Palestine, 
northern Syria, and southern Iraq. This type of dwelling is used 
mainly by seminomadic tribes who are in the process of settlement. 
In the hilly areas of the region in general, and in Lebanon in par- 
ticular, stone (mostly limestone) is the most common building mate- 
rial, It is cut by expert masons, of whom practically every village 
boasts a good number. In most cases stone is used exclusively in 
constructing the foundation, the walls, the ceiling, and the roof. A 
solid dome-shaped structure is the result, which may have a flat or a 
convex roof. Sometimes wooden beams are used for the ceiling and 
bricks for the roof. On the plains of the interior, adobe houses are 
the most prevalent. A special variety of these are the so-called bee- 
hive houses of some villages in northern Syria. The distinctive fea- 
ture here is the conical shape of the dome, which helps to mitigate 
the effect of the blazing sun. <A typical house of the whole region 
consists of a courtyard, which may or may not be surrounded by a wall, 
and two or more square rooms, one of which is occupied by the farm 
animals during the short cold season. In many cases, when the family 
dwelling consists of one room, it is shared by both animals and human 
beings. In some cases people occupy the top floor and animals the 
first floor. It seems that the idea of a separate barn has never taken 
root in that part of the world. Finally, it must be mentioned that in 
recent years, especially in the villages of the coastal area, some depar- 
ture from the typical structure has been taking place. New detached 
houses are being built outside the original conglomeration and away 
from the ancestral home, and modern construction materials are 
being used. 

Agricultural land owned or cultivated by the farmers begins just 
outside the village proper and extends in all directions from it. In 
some cases there is an established division of the land into zones. The 
first of these, adjoining the dwelling places, is used for gardens and an 
assortment of fruit trees. Farther out orchards prevail. In between, 
or beyond the orchards, are the open fields for the growing of cereals. 
On the outskirts, or wherever the land is brushy and least fertile, a 
portion is set aside for grazing. In many localities, however, no such 
zoning pattern exists. There are villages that use the land exclu- 
sively for raising cereals and grazing. Others specialize in raising 
fruits, and leave practically no space for vegetable gardens or for 


530 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


grazing. A more regular and more outstanding feature of the village 
territory is its extreme fragmentation. In the mountain settlements 
this takes the form of an extensive system of terracing. A terrace 
is usually a few feet or a few yards wide and as long as the hillside. 
The side of the terrace is supported by a strong stone wall. In the 
valleys and on the plains, fragmentation takes the form of a great 
number of small plots, separated by a laborious network of hedges, 
ditches, or stone fences. The cultural necessity for this seemingly 
absurd agricultural practice will be pointed out later. 


THE LAND 


One of the strongest ties exists between the Arab fel/ah and his 
land. Its significance to him and his attachment to it cannot be ex- 
plained in cold economic terms, for land is one of the few main pillars 
of village life, involving a deep-rooted complex of behavior and senti- 
ment. For countless generations it has been the only source of life 
for him and for his ancestors. Year in and year out he has depended 
upon it to sustain him, and it did. He calls it the “blessed earth” and 
refers to it with reverence. He has worked on it since he was a child, 
and so did his ancestors before him. He inherited it from them, as 
they, in their turn, inherited the same land. The attachment is so 
strong that the fed/ah resorts to migration or to selling his land only 
under extreme pressure. One example of this is the great difficulty 
which the Egyptian Government has encountered in its attempt to set- 
tle some of the fellahin on newly reclaimed land, with a view to re- 
heving high population pressure. They are offered all sorts of facili- 
ties and inducements, yet they are reluctant to leave their ancestral 
communities. 

Another illustration is afforded by the early emigrants from the 
villages of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. Under extreme popula- 
tion pressure, they began to emigrate to the Americas around 1880- 
1890. In practically all cases they intended to save some money as 
soon as possible, then return to their original homes. Very few of 
them indeed were willing to sell their land when they emigrated. The 
first money many of them were able to send home was for the purpose 
of rebuying the land they had to sell or releasing it from mortgage. 
Some of them, who are now married and established immigrants in 
this country, still own land in the old village. It is a bond they do 
not like to sever, although they know very well that they will never 
go back.? 

Another indication of the significance of land is the manner in 
which the fel/ah responds to it, as if it were a living organism. In 

2Wor an atalysis of the influence of emigration upon village life, see my article, “Emigra- 


tion, a Force of Social Change in an Arab Village,” Rural Sociology, vol. 7, No. 1, March 
1942. 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 531 


many cases each plot he owns has a personal history that is handed 
down with it. It may be that an important village incident took 
place there, or that an ancestor had an intimate connection with the 
place. Consequently, one finds that proper names are often given to 
various plots or various sections of the village territory. Many of 
these names indicate the quality or behavior of the land as experi- 
enced by the fe//ahin. In the case of one small village in Lebanon, 
the writer was able to record over 30 such names. Here are a few 
examples: Mawadeh, meaning loyalty; Al-Hamra, meaning land with 
reddish soil; Al-Akra’, meaning the bald land; Juret Muhanna, land 
named after Muhanna, an ancestor. 

The prevailing system of land tenure among the fellahin of the 
Middle East goes back in its origin mainly to the time of the Arab con- 
quest. Toward the middle of the seventh century the Arabs ousted the 
Romans and occupied the region. Cultivators of the soil who had al- 
ready been there were left generally unmolested. Gradually, how- 
ever, an elaborate system of land tenure developed, springing mainly 
from two foundations, the tribal and the religious organization of the’ 
Arab conquerors. Several hundred years later the Ottoman Turks 
took the rule over from the Arabs. At the same time they adopted in 
the main the culture of the latter, including their religion of Islam, 
much of their language, and the land system they had developed, into 
which some modification was introduced. With this brief statement 
of the background, we may now discuss the main categories of land and 
types of ownership.’ 

1. Mulk.A—This is the same as ownership in fee simple. The owner 
of such land is free to do with it whatever he wishes. He may plant it 
to any kind of crop or leave it uncultivated, erect buildings on it, and 
bequeath it as he sees fit. This type may be traced back to two sources. 
One of these was the J/ulk that was in existence at the time of the Arab 
conquest. Owners of such land were left unmolested, except that they 
had to pay a certain tax in kind. The other source was the custom of 
Arab rulers, and later the Turkish Sultans, to grant land from the 
public domains to tribal chiefs and other local leaders, or to soldiers, 
in order to appease them, or in compensation for some service. De- 
spite the strong desire of the fellah for this type of ownership, it covers 
only a small percentage of the land in the Middle East. 

&, Miri.\—By far the greater portion of land is of this category. It 


is state property that has been leased out to cultivators either tempo- 
rarily or in perpetuity. In the latter case, it is virtually the property 


‘The interested reader is referred to my article, “Land Tenure in the Middle East,” 
Foreign Agriculture, U. S. Dep. Agr., August 1943. 

“From the Arabic root Malaka, to own fully and absolutely. 

® Corrupted from the Arabic word Emiriyah, that which belongs to the Emir or ruler. 


532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


of the farmer, as he can cultivate it as he wishes and bequeath it to his 
heirs. He has, however, to abide by certain conditions, the main 
among which are the following: (a) if the land is left uncultivated for 
3 consecutive years, it will revert to the state; (6) such reversion also 
takes place when no heirs claim the land; (¢) the owner cannot 
bequeath such property through a will. Upon death, inheritance 
takes place automatically, as prescribed by the Muslim law; (d) also 
the owner cannot offer it in dedication for any purpose, as explained 
below. 

3. Wagf.°—By this term is designated property that has been dedi- 
cated for religious or charitable purposes. With the advent of the 
religion of Islam, this practice, which already had been ‘in existence, 
became highly institutionalized and widely spread. In almost every 
village of the Middle East one comes across such dedicated property. 
This may be a building, an open field, an orchard or a few trees of 
one, offered as a perpetual gift to a church, a mosque, or a patron 
saint. A common one, mostly in towns, is the Sadzl, a public fountain 
or drinking place. The main goal people have sought through such 
dedication has been the invocation of mercy from the Almighty or 
His saints upon their sick ones, or upon the souls of their dead. It is 
also good religion to dedicate for charity of various kinds. Another 
form is dedication for the benefit of one’s heirs. It should be noted 
that only Mulk land, as described above, can be dedicated as true 
Wagf, which entails absolute and perpetual transfer of ownership. 
On the other hand, Méri land can be dedicated only as untrue Wagf, 
which involves usufruct and not ownership. True Wagf cannot be 
exchanged or sold except when replacing it is the ultimate aim of 
such transaction. 

4, Masha’.'—In Lebanon, ownership of land by individual families 
is the rule, whereas in the rest of the region a form of communal 
ownership is practiced. Most probably this came about as a natural 
development of the original tribal organization. It is just one step, 
possibly the only one that could be taken, from common ownership 
by a nomadic tribe of grazing rights over a certain territory to com- 
munal ownership of agricultural land, when that tribe settles down. 
In fact, one can still observe this transition taking place in several 
localities within the region, where nomadism and settled agriculture 
meet. Under the Masha’ system no one owns any specific plot in the 
village territory. Instead, each individual farmer or family owns 
a certain number of shares, which entitle the owner to cultivate a 
certain amount of land for a period varying from 1 to 5 years. At 
the end of such period a rotation of cultivators takes place. Usually, 
regular inheritance of shares takes place by dividing them among 


® From the Arabic root verb Wagqafa, to stop or to hold steady and unchanged. 
7 From the Arabic root verb Sha’a, to be shared in common. 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 533 


the grown-up children. The right of a female child to such inherit- 
ance is recognized, although normally she foregoes that right in favor 
of her brothers. In some villages the right of inheritance is not 
established. Instead of that, at regular intervals the land is divided 
into as many shares as there are males, including infants. 

At this point it is essential to dwell briefly on the apparent bias of 
the culture in favor of males and against females. An implied ex- 
planation for this prejudice may be found in two other cultural prac- 
tices. One of these is the custom of patrilocalism, whereby a girl 
upon marriage goes to live with her husband’s people and becomes 
completely identified with them. In case she should inherit land, un- 
desirable complications for both family groups would inevitably 
arise. Such complications become accentuated when the girl marries 
into another village community. The other practice is the emphasis 
of the culture upon marriage. Practically every woman has a chance 
of getting married (remembering that polygyny, more than one wife 
to one husband, is permitted among the Muslims) and her economic 
security is attained through that of her husband’s. 

It was mentioned above that in the case of villages where land is 
owned directly by individual families in the form of specific plots, ex- 
treme fragmentation of holdings takes place. <A certain farmer, for 
example, may own some 20 acres, divided into 10 to 15 plots and scat- 
tered in all directions from the village proper. Such a situation seems 
to be an inevitable result of the prevailing family organization and of 
the nucleated type of settlement. Family solidarity is strongly em- 
phasized, to the extent that three generations live together, own and 
culivate the land as one unit. Upon the death of the grandparents, 
the land is equally divided among the married and unmarried sons. 
None of them thinks of selling out to the others and emigrating. 
This process of subdivision continues generation after generation, 
with the size of the plots dwindling. Scattering of holdings is the 
outcome of all farmers living in a central place instead of on their 
land. The village territory is naturally divided into several sites, 
according to fertility and other qualities. From the beginning each 
family group is allowed to own a certain portion in each of these 
sites. Through occasional purchase and inheritance from the mother’s 
side, scattering becomes more and more accentuated. 

Finally, in connection with tenure it must be mentioned that ap- 
proximately 50 percent of agricultural land is cultivated under one 
form of tenancy or another. This should be expected in a region 
where the Miri category, land owned by the ruler or the state, has 
been predominant. As mentioned above, it was the practice of rulers 
to offer large tracts of land to local leaders in compensation for cer- 
tain services. Gradually, such leaders became absentee landlords and 

566766—44—35 


534 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


left their land to be cultivated by tenants. Another source of the 
system has been the constant transition from nomadism to settled 
agriculture. Normally, as the tribe settles down, leadership of the 
sheikh is maintained. He assigns certain portions of the land to in- 
dividual families, who contribute to him a part of the produce. 
Within a generation or two, he assumes the role of a feudal lord 
and they sink to the level of tenancy. In Iraq, for example, such a 
feudal sheikh may be the virtual owner of some 20 or more villages. 


AGRICULTURE AND DIET 


Perhaps more than any other occupation, it may be said of 
agriculture that it is a way of life. This is especially true of the 
Arab village in the Middle East. The strong attachment of the 
fellah to the soil and its deep significance to him have been pointed 
out above. He is born into the village where everybody is a farmer, 
and where farming of the same soil, according to the same techniques, 
has taken place for countless generations. His personality is devel- 
oped according to a cultural pattern, the major portion of which is 
woven around the team of oxen, the plow, the good earth, the year’s 
store of wheat for making bread, and scores of other agricultural 
items and activities. His diet is derived almost entirely from the soil 
he cultivates. 

Space does not permit a thorough analysis of this important aspect 
of village life. Discussion will be limited to the main crops pro- 
duced in the region and the main features of the activities involved 
in the production and consumption of these crops. The growing of 
cereals predominates in each of the five countries under consideration. 
Wheat comes first, followed by barley, maize, dura (grain sorghum), 
and rice. Some of the maize and dura and practically all the barley 
are used for feeding farm animals, Barley is especially fed to horses, 
donkeys, and mules. Possibly this is why the people have a prejudice 
against eating it, except in stringent years and in areas where the 
other cereals do not grow well. In Arabic literature and in local 
sayings there are several references to the lower status of barley. 
Wheat is especially desired for making bread, of which the adult 
fellah consumes from 1 to 2 pounds daily. He eats it morning, noon, 
and evening, a piece of it with every mouthful of the meal. No meal 
is considered complete without bread, whereas bread alone is accept- 
able. It is literally “the bread of life” to these people. In this connec- 
tion, it should be of interest to point out the cooperative and social 
character of the baking activity. In many localities, instead of a 
family oven constructed in the courtyard, there are established village 
bakeries. Families take turns at using these, baking enough bread for 
a week or two. On such occasions the housewife is helped by several 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 535 


neighbor women. As the 8 or 10 of them sit at opposite sides of a long 
table and pound the dough into large, round, and thin loaves, they 
exchange news and gossip about the village affairs. Further, it should 
be noted that preparing bread is almost entirely a woman’s activity. 
In some places the activity of tending the oven is open to men. 

One cereal, which is common in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, 
deserves special mention. This is burghul, which is made of wheat 
by a process of boiling, drying in the sun, removing some of the bran 
by sprinkling with water and rubbing with hands, then crushing at 
the mill into a coarse and a fine variety. As in the case of bread, 
most of the work involved is done cooperatively and is combined with 
social visiting and recreation. The coarse variety is used in cooking 
various usual cereal dishes, whereas the finer portion is used exclu- 
sively in preparing the well-known dish kubbeh. This consists basi- 
cally of bwrghul and lean meat pounded together into thick paste in 
a large stone mortar. The paste may be eaten raw, with olive oil 
or sammn (clarified butter), or it may be cooked in a number of ways. 

Fruits are rather plentiful, with oranges, grapes, figs, apricots, 
melons, dates, and olives leading. 'The activities involved in the pro- 
duction and consumption of each one of these constitute a clearly 
defined culture complex. As an illustration, the olive complex, which 
is widely spread in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, will be described. 
The olive, a native of the Mediterranean region, is a very hardy ever- 
green tree, and lives to be several hundred years old. In some local- 
ities olive groves have been in existence longer than village traditions 
can reach. With little care, year in and year out, the olive tree gives 
its highly valued fruit. Pruning takes place yearly, and the cut-off 
branches are used for fuel or as supports for grapevines. The small, 
but thick, oblong leaves that drop from the tree are gathered regularly 
by women and used for fuel. The fruit begins to ripen in the fall. 
From that time until the end of January, village life becomes highly 
olive centered. The season is begun cooperatively, in that no one 
can start before the elders decide upon the time and the place of pick- 
ing. This decision is announced at the church or the mosque, or by 
the village crier. At that time in Christian villages the priest usu- 
ally goes around and blesses the produce. Picking the fruit is done 
mostly by beating it down with long sticks. This is exclusively a 
man’s activity. On the other hand, only women and children gather 
the fallen fruit and put it in baskets or sacks. Also sorting is done 
by women. Each housewife then pickles enough olives to last the 
family the whole year. The rest of the crop is taken by the farmer 
to one of the three or four presses that exist in the village. Work 
at the press is done exclusively by men. The owner is usually paid in 
kind, and in the same manner he pays the few workers he employs. A 


536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


year’s store of oil is put aside for family use, and the surplus is sold 
for cash. With enough oil and cereal to last the year round, the 
fellah feels secure. 

Regarding the consumption of meat, a few distinctive practices 
should be noted. The most conspicuous of these is the effective taboo 
the Muslim religion has placed upon pork. The animal itself is repul- 
sive to the Muslim, and he would rather go hungry than touch its 
meat. Under the influence of the Muslim majority, the Christians in 
this region have also refrained from eating pork. A similar Muslim 
taboo covers alcoholic beverages. It is interesting to note, however, 
that in this case the Christian minority has not been influenced by 
the Muslim rule. Another practice is that animals should be slaugh- 
tered in a specified manner, by cutting the throat and letting the 
blood drain out. No one would touch meat from an animal that has 
been killed in a different way. A further observation is that the 
people of Lebanon are fond of eating raw meat, especially certain 
cuts of it. 

Dairy products are consumed mainly in the form of leben (fer- 
mented milk), white cheese, and sammn (clarified butter). Milk is 
obtained from sheep, goats, cows, buffaloes, and camels. 

Coffee is the most important beverage. The nomadic Bedouin, the 
fellah, and the city dweller relish it. For several hundred years 
they have used it, until it has become the core of a body of traditions. 
It is the symbol of hospitality and honoring a guest. Refusing it is 
taken as an insult or a sign of enmity. 

A final point that should be observed in connection with the subject 
of agriculture is the amazing persistence of ancient techniques. One 
still encounters the Biblical team of oxen, wooden plow and yoke, 
and threshing board, as well as the hand sickle, the clay beehive, and 
the primitive chicken coop. In some places, even the threshing board 
is omitted, and animals are made to tread over the straw instead. 
Side by side with such manifestation of cultural stability, one wit- 
nesses drastic changes in some aspects of life. Practically every vil- 
lage has been invaded by the automobile and the radio. It is said that 
the former has been used by the Bedouin in his raids! In Lebanon the 
western type of dress is now more common than the native. It seems 
that we have here a vivid illustration of the fact that there is no 
necessary carry-over in the process of acculturation from one aspect 
of culture to another. 


FAMILY ORGANIZATION 


The fundamental significance of family life in the culture of the 
Arab village cannot be overemphasized. It is equal in this respect 
to land and agriculture. We have shown above that the origin of the 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 537 


nucleated settlement can be traced probably to the tribal organization, 
which is essentially based upon blood ties. When the first boy is 
born to a married couple, people cease to call them by their names. 
Instead, they are called after the name of their son, Abu-Ahmed and 
Um-Ahmed, for example (i. e., the father and mother of Ahmed.) 
This is an indication of the emphasis of the culture upon family con- 
tinuity through the new generation. Reciprocally, children and 
adults are constantly identified with their parents and family groups. 
“Whose son is he?”; “To what family does he belong?”; “From what 
village does he come?” are the first questions asked about a stranger. 
In village proverbs and sayings reference to blood ties and relations is 
frequent. Insulting an individual as such may be dismissed without 
much ado, whereas violent reaction is certain to result if the insult is 
directed at the individual’s family. “May Allah curse your ancestors” 
is one of the toughest swearing expressions used. In situations of ser- 
ious conflict, members of a family rally together and face the threat 
as one solid unit. Such and similar indices serve to show clearly how 
predominant is identification with the family group. 

Considering the region as a whole, three types of family units can 
be distinguished. The first of these is the ordinary biological family, 
consisting primarily of the married couple and their children. This 
type, which prevails in the north American rural culture, is the least 
significant in the Arab village. Beyond fulfilling its biological func- 
tion, the unit does not figure much in life’s situations. It should rather 
be considered as a stage leading to the development of the larger and 
more important unit that will be described presently. It should be 
remarked, however, that under the impact of Western culture, espe- 
cially its economic system, the biological family is beginning to play a 
more dominant role. This is particularly evident in the villages of the 
coastal area where direct contact with the West has been taking place 
intensively during the last 50 years. 

The second and most important unit is the joint family, consisting 
of three generations. Taking one of the grandchildren as a point 
of departure, the group normally consists of brothers and sisters, first 
paternal cousins, married and unmarried paternal uncles, unmarried 
paternal aunts, and the paternal grandparents. All these, varying 
in number from 10 to 30 people, live close together within the same 
compound of dwellings. Socially and economically they function as 
one unit. They own the land collectively, cooperate in its cultivation, 
and share equally its produce. At the death of the grandfather, the 
family splits into as many units as there are sons, each one of whom 
becomes the nucleus for the development of a separate entity. Within 
this patrilineal and patrilocal system, the girl is considered as an 
integral member of the paternal group as long as she stays unmarried. 


538 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Upon marriage, she moves to the abode of her husband’s people and 
becomes completely identified with them. In case the girl does not 
marry at all, which is rather exceptional, arrangements are made for 
her to live with one of the brothers when the original unit splits. 
Upon divorce, which takes place only among Muslims, the woman 
normally returns to live with her people. 

A clear division of work between the sexes and differentiation of 
status-role can be observed. This differentiation is sharper within 
Muslim than it is within Christian families. It can be said that in 
general the female’s status-role is subordinate to that of the male’s. 
The following are a few indications of this tendency. As was men- 
tioned above, parents are named after the first son, but never after 
their first daughter. The desire expressed by the parents and their 
relatives is always for a male child. “May Allah give you a son” 
is the usual saying. One never hears, “May Allah give you a 
daughter.” Circumcision or baptism of a boy are occasions for 
village celebration, whereas a girl’s baptism is observed quietly. In 
some localities women of the household eat only after men have fin- 
ished their meal. In such places a certain degree of segregation of the 
sexes takes place, and women are generally kept in the background. 
However, no veiling of women is practiced in any of the villages, 
as is done among the Muslims of towns and cities. In general, it is 
men who make all important decisions regarding family affairs. 

Regarding the division of work, two generalizations may be made— 
that men handle the heavier tasks, and that they take up those tasks 
that carry more prestige. Taking care of the children, preparing 
meals, getting water from the spring or well, and washing and mend- 
ing clothes is done exclusively by women. They also do the lighter 
tasks in the fields, such as weeding, gleaning, and fruit picking. 
Men do very little at home. In fact, they would be looked down 
upon by the community, including their wives, if they should handle 
any of the jobs assigned to women. In the fields, they do the heavier 
jobs, such as plowing, pruning, harvesting, and threshing. 

The influence of the joint family extends also to the marriage 
institution. In fact, the latter may be considered as a function of 
the former. A boy may know his girl well, and the two may fall 
in love, but the final decision in the matter rests with the families 
concerned. The parents, the aunts, the uncles, and the grandparents 
must have their say. Such an apparent “interference” or “meddling” 
is a logical consequence of the fact that the newly married couple 
will not establish an independent home, but will live with the rest 
of the family unit. In exceptional cases, the boy and girl may rebel 
against a negative decision by their families and elope. Reaction 
against such deviation varies from locality to locality. It may take 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 539 


the form of a mild and temporary ostracism, or it may lead to the 
murder of the girl by an infuriated brother or father. Choice of a 
mate within the kinship group is preferable to marriage with an 
outsider. In this respect, Muslims go as far as to permit marriage 
between first cousins, whereas Christians make second or third cousins 
the limit, depending upon the sect. Having children, and the more 
of them the better, is the primary purpose of marriage, as far as the 
joint family is concerned. They constitute an economic asset on the 
farm, and through them the prestige of the unit is enhanced and its 
continuity assured. In the face of such a situation, the lot of a 
barren woman is miserable indeed. Divorce and polygyny do not 
occur in Christian communities, whereas both are practiced by the 
Muslims, with certain restricting conditions. 

A third entity that is based on blood relationship is the kinship 
group. This is more comprehensive than both the biological and 
the joint family. It consists of all those who claim descent from the 
same paternal ancestor. The number of joint families that make up 
a kinship group varies from village to village, according to the age 
of the community and the occurrence of disruptive factors that may 
split the group at a certain stage in its development or retard its 
growth. Its influence is felt by the individual in a variety of situa- 
tions. From the start, the child learns that he should address every 
member of the unit as “cousin” or “uncle” or “aunt” or “grandfather” 
or “grandmother.” As mentioned above, it is expected of a young 
man to marry within rather than outside the kinship group. In 
times of serious conflicts or feuds within the village, kinship loyalty 
asserts itself and is binding upon every member. 


RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION 


It is not a matter of coincidence that three of the five leading 
religions of the world originated in the region of the Middle East. 
A discussion of the factors that have made such a development pos- 
sible is not our present task. What concerns us in this respect is the 
fact that man in this part of the world has always been highly 
religion-conscious, and that his religious traditions are well estab- 
lished and reach as far back as early human history. A continuous 
and direct line of descent can be traced from the various religions 
of early ancient times to Judaism, then Christianity, and more re- 
cently Islam. The earlier forms of religion have ceased to exist, 
excepting inasmuch as their practices have been absorbed by the three 
that followed them, and which are still living in the region. Of 
these, Judaism is the least influential. Its followers, aside from the 
recent Zionist settlements in Palestine, are limited to small communi- 
ties of a few thousands each in the cities of Beirut, Damascus, Bagh- 


54.0 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


dad, and Aleppo. There are no Jewish village communities. By the 
end of the Roman rule in the Middle East, Christianity had become 
the predominant religion, spreading widely among city and village 
people. Toward the middle of the seventh century, conquest of the 
territory by the Arabs took place, and their religion of Islam pre- 
vailed. Many Christian communities embraced the new religion. 
and new Muslim settlements increased. At present, except in the 
predominantly Christian Lebanon, Christian villages constitute a 
small minority in the various countries of the Middle East. 

In the light of this background, a description of the religious 
organization of the village community will now be attempted. The 
first distinctive feature to be noted is that religion, like agriculture, 
is a way of life in this part of the world. It is so old and so deep- 
rooted an institution that it has permeated all aspects of community 
life and become inseparable from them. A visit to one of the old 
Christian monasteries on the Lebanon heights is sufficient to give one 
the impression of a religion that does not lend itself readily to the 
forces of change. It must also be remembered that the central core 
or primary motive in the Arab wave of conquest was their religious 
message—a call to all peoples to embrace Islam, the religion of sur- 
render unto Allah. Through such surrender, the various aspects of 
life took shape and color. Consequently, in the village community 
of today everybody is born into its church (Muslim or Christian) 
and is expected to remain in it for the rest of his life. He may not 
know much about its dogmas or subscribe to their letter, but he con- 
forms loyally to the community folkways and mores which have been 
inspired mainly by the rules of the church. Every seventh day of 
the week (Friday for the Muslims) and during the many religious 
festivals of the year, village people stop work and indulge in social 
visiting and other recreational activities. Recently in Palestine im- 
portant religious festivals have been successfully transformed into 
occasions for political demonstration. The Haj (pilgrimage to 
Mecca) is a dominating factor in the life of the fellah. He may 
never be able to accomplish such a religious trip, but he is always 
planning for it. When he succeeds, his departure and his return are 
occasions for celebration by the whole community. And when the 
elements of nature fail him and his crops are threatened with ruin, he 
turns to the village church as a final resort. It has prayers to bring 
down rain, to bless the produce, and to ward off the evil eye. Never 
would a fellah talk about his children, livestock, land, or produce 
without uttering at frequent intervals the name of Allah in a variety 
of phrases. No marriage is considered possible unless it is sanctioned 
by the regular religious ceremony. Circumcision and baptism, two 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 541 


religious rituals, are occasions for social and other recreational activ- 
ities. One could go on citing scores of other examples showing the 
far-reaching integration of religion with agriculture, family, recrea- 
tion, and other aspects of village culture. 

Stability is a second prominent feature of the village church. This 
may be seen as a natural consequence of the first feature just analyzed. 
When religion permeates community life to such an extent as de- 
scribed above, change must perforce be extremely slow. Another ex- 
planation may be found in the intensity of emotional experience that 
goes with various religious practices in the village. Being a product 
of the culture under consideration, the writer knows from personal 
experience the force of the emotional factor. He was also able to see 
it in operation in his study of one of the Arab communities established 
in this country. A convincing manifestation of this stability has been 
shown in the extreme reluctance of the village people to yield to con- 
version. Muslims and Christians, whether living in the same village 
or in separate villages, have settled down, in the course of 1,300 years, 
to an implicit understanding that those who are born Muslim shall 
remain Muslim, and those who are born Christian shall continue to be 
so. The idea of proselyting is alien to their minds. The same atti- 
tude has been shown toward the energetic attempt at conversion by 
Western missionaries during the last hundred years. It is a well- 
known fact that not more than 10 to 20 Muslims in the whole region 
have been converted. 

A third feature is the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by the vil- 
lage church. This is another indication of its identification with the 
life of the community, rather than with an outside hierarchy. Islam, 
in fact, does not have much of an ecclesiastical organization, and the 
Muslim village church is very much of a local affair. The people 
choose their mam or sheikh, who leads them in prayer and performs 
for them certain ceremonies. He is paid a certain unassigned wage, 
mostly in kind. The Christian priest is similarly chosen and paid. 
He is one of the villagers, well known to them, and they expect him to 
be their priest all his life. There is no question of his being called 
somewhere else. In addition, he owns land as they do, and does some 
farming. After being ordained by the bishop, he is left very much on 
his own with his congregation. One condition with which he must 
conform is that he should get married before he is ordained ; otherwise 
he will have to remain celibate. Most of the village priests are mar- 
ried, which is preferred by the community. On the other hand, celi- 
bacy is required in all other statuses of the heirarchy, from the monk 
to the patriarch; but this heirarchy has very little to do with village 


8 See the writer's article, “Acculturation of an Arab-Syrian Community in the Deep 
South,” Amer. Sociol. Rev., vol. 8, No. 3, June 1943. 


542 |§ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


life. In ceremonies, festivals, intervillage relations and legal affairs, 
the local church is named after, and identified with, its own village 
community. 

THE COMMUNITY 


So far we have shown how land, agriculture, family, and church 
weave a pattern of life for the Arab fellah. To complete the descrip- 
tion of the pattern, one more element should be discussed. This is 
community life as a whole, which is dependent upon the other ele- 
ments, yet goes beyond them. Short of the association and emotional 
experience afforded by the totality of the community, the fell/ah’s life 
is incomplete. The village is, more or less, his self-sufficient world. 
Under the discussion of its physical structure above, we emphasized 
its nucleated nature and indicated how clearly it can be identified. 
This clarity of the physical boundaries is a true reflection of a complete 
form of association within, of which the individual is part, as much as 
he is part of his family, church, and agricultural occupation. 

The fellah is always conscious of the fact that he is a member of a 
certain community, and he knows wherever he goes people expect him 
to identify himself as such. A stranger is always “placed” with 
respect to his village, family, and church. The influence of the 
community extends also to agriculture. This is obvious in the case 
where communal ownership of the land prevails, as discussed above. 
Even where land is privately owned, rotation of crops, grazing 
grounds, dates of harvesting, and appointment of crop guards are all 
fixed by the village as a whole. Marriage within the settlement is 
preferable to marriage with an outsider; and individuals usually 
conform. We have indicated above how the local church is identified 
primarily with the community, rather than with the mother church. 
In intervillage competition or conflict loyalty to the local community 
asserts itself in an unmistakable manner and is expected from every 
individual. Practically every village has developed a sort of a repu- 
tation, a general character, by which it is well known in the surround- 
ing area. This may be the prowess of its youth, its learning, the in- 
dustry of its farmers, its loose morals, etc. 

Local leadership and government also reflect the authority and in- 
terests of the community. Leaders develop gradually and spon- 
taneously, by measuring up to certain esteemed qualifications. These 
are, ideally, land ownership, old age, good family background, gen- 
erosity, good moral character, and intelligence, which they express as 
“wisdom.” Naturally, very few individauls ever attain all of these 
points, and a compromise has to be made. Usually, there is a formally 
organized or informal village council consisting of leaders from the 
various kinship groups. This representative body settles disputes 
between individuals and decides upon various village affairs. In some 


ARAB VILLAGE COMMUNITY—TANNOUS 543 


localities, under the influence of the central government municipalities 
have been established, members of which are elected by the people. 

Under the tremendous impact of Western culture, as is now being 
brought about by the exigencies of the present global war, one wonders 
how this village-world of the Middle East will fare. Will it succeed 
in absorbing the shock and maintain its stability, as it did in the days 
of the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, and the Turks? Will the 
present forces of change—the tractor, the automobile, the radio, the 
gun, and Western ideologies—prove too much for it to control and 
force it to be uprooted with the rest of humanity? Or will there be a 
chance of selective acculturation under the guidance of an intelligent 
world organization ? 


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8 ith ia Shige Cet 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous Preanee 


1. THE VILAGE WELL OF BISHMIZZEEN, NORTH LEBANON. 


Water is hauled by means of a kerosene can and a rope. 


2. IN SOME VILLAGES THE PEOPLE DEPEND UPON WATER FROM A 
RUNNING STREAM FOR WASHING AND DRINKING. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 3 


sive = “ 


f be 


THE ANCIENT WATERWHEEL OF THE ORONTIS RIVER VALLEY IN 
NORTHERN SYRIA. 


‘The river current turns the wheel and lifts the water to a suitable height, whence it is conducted for 
irrigation purposes. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 4 


re 
le: BEF 


1. TYPICAL HOUSE IN THE BIKA’ PLAIN, LEBANON. 
Note the heap of dung cakes which are used for fuel. 


2. A REED-CANE DWELLING FOR SUMMER USE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 5 


1. THE NUCLEATED STRUCTURE OF A VILLAGE IN CENTRAL SYRIA. 


2. THE SAHA, WHERE MARKETS ARE HELD, IN A VILLAGE OF 
SOUTHERN PALESTINE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 6 


THE COURTYARDS OF VILLAGE HOUSES IN SOUTHERN PALESTINE (1) 
AND IN THE INTERIOR OF LEBANON (2). 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 7 


1. A STONE HOUSE IN THE VILLAGE OF BISHMIZZEEN, TYPICAL OF THE 
MOUNTAINOUS SECTION OF LEBANON AND NORTHERN PALESTINE. 


2. GENERAL VIEW OF A ‘‘BEEHIVE’’ VILLAGE IN THE 
ALLOUITE REGION, NORTH SYRIA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 8 


1. BAKING BREAD ON THE SAJ (THE HEATED IRON PLATE IN THE 
CENTER) IN THE INTERIOR OF LEBANON. 


Note the thin loaves. 


2. BAKING BREAD IN THE VILLAGE BAKERY IS A HIGHLY 
COOPERATIVE AND SOCIAL ACTIVITY. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 9 


1. GENERAL VIEW OF OLIVE ORCHARDS IN THE KURA VALLEY, LEBANON. 


2. ELABORATE TERRACING IS MAINTAINED IN ORDER TO PREVENT 
EXCESSIVE EROSION ON THE MOUNTAINSIDES. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 10 


ne a “48 


1. A TEAM OF OXEN IS THE MAINSTAY OF A LEBANON FARM. 
The farmer holds the goad in one hand and directs the plow with the other. 


2. THE ANCIENT THRESHING BOARD IS STILL IN USE. 
The under surface is studded with hard stones. 


PLATE 11 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous 


1. FREQUENTLY THE COOP IS PERCHED IN A TREE, AND THE 
CHICKENS LEARN HOW TO CLIMB TO IT. 


2. AN EARTHENWARE JAR SERVING FOR A BEEHIVE IS ANOTHER 
OLD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 13 


: { 
id ten NE ile ok, i Nd Real A eS tm 


1. THE COUNCIL OF ELDERS MEETING WITH GOVERNMENT 
OFFICIALS IN A DRUZE VILLAGE. 


A i 
we - 
agt So ; 


- 
os 


2. ARAB COFFEE AND HOSPITALITY ARE SYNONY MOUS. 


Note the mortar in which the roasted beans are pounded. 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Tannous PLATE 14 


1. THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE HAS INVADED THE OUTLYING ARAB VILLAGE, 
BRINGING ABOUT FAR-REACHING CHANGES IN ITS WAY OF LIFE. 


2. THE RETURNING EMIGRANT HAS BEEN ANOTHER FORCE OF 
SOCIAL CHANGE IN VILLAGE CULTURE. 


He brings back new ideas, a higher standard of living, and a new outlook on life. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS FROM MICROBES 


By Rosrert L. WEINTRAUB 


Division of Radiation and Organisms 
Smithsonian Institution 


[With 5 plates] 
RETROSPECT 


The treatment of disease with chemical agents is as old as the prac- 
tice of medicine itself. Since the beginnings of the healing art, there 
has been a constant effort to discover specific remedies for the maladies 
that beset the human organism. During the dawn of our present 
scientific era, hopes of success in this direction were voiced by some 
of the outstanding workers, such as Paracelsus in the sixteenth cen- 
tury and Boyle in the seventeenth, but the search for chemical spe- 
cifics was of necessity conducted in an entirely empirical manner. 
Until the twentieth century only three valuable specific remedies 
for infectious diseases had been found: cinchona bark (containing 
quinine) for malaria, ipecac (containing emetine) for amebic dysen- 
tery, and mercury for syphilis. 

The firm establishment of the germ theory of disease, due largely 
to Pasteur during the latter half of the nineteenth century, created 
a rational basis for the development of chemotherapy. ‘Today various 
connotations have become associated with this term. To the earlier 
workers it meant the internal disinfection of the body by chemicals 
which would destroy the pathogenic parasites without harming the 
host—in the words of Paul Ehrlich, the father of chemotherapy: “by 
magic bullets which strike only those objects for whose destruction 
they have been produced.” 

The recognition of the powerful bactericidal action of a number 
of chemicals, such as carbolic acid and bichloride of mercury, stimu- 
lated expectations of the early accomplishment of inner disinfection. 
Despite a great deal of labor, however, this goal was not achieved ; the 
disinfectants which appeared so promising in test-tube experiments 
were found to be either ineffective in vivo or too toxic toward the 
body. It was not until 1910, with the introduction of salvarsan, or 
“606,” developed after years of painstaking work by Ehrlich, that 


545 


546 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


successful chemotherapy by a synthetic compound could be regarded 
as accomplished. Hopes were again raised that, having reached this 
milestone, further progress would be rapid, but once again the expecta- 
tion proved futile. In the ensuing quarter of a century only a hand- 
ful of useful chemotherapeutic agents were developed and all these, 
like quinine and salvarsan, were limited to the treatment of protozoal 
diseases. All experience indicated that the ordinary pathogenic 
bacteria could not be attacked by chemotherapy. 

Then in 1935 announcement was made of the curative effects on 
bacterial infections in mice by the dye prontosil. It was soon shown 
that the action of this compound is due entirely to a small portion 
of the molecule, sulfanilamide. From this parent substance have 
been derived all the sulfonamide compounds so widely used in recent 
years. In a period of half a dozen years approximately three 
thousand derivatives and related compounds have been tested; four 
of these—sulfapyridine, sulfaguanidine, sulfathiazole, and sulfadia- 
zine—have been outstanding. The introduction of these drugs has rev- 
olutionized many phases of medicine. Dozens of infectious diseases 
have responded to sulfonamide therapy, and the prospects for cases 
of septicemia, pneumonia, scarlet fever, and meningitis, to mention 
only a few, have been dramatically improved. Without doubt 
hundreds of thousands of lives have already been saved by the sul- 
fonamides. 

These drugs are not, however, without their disadvantages. In 
many patients they produce symptoms of great discomfort and may 
even cause severe toxic effects and tissue damage. Further, it has 
been discovered that some strains of pneumococci and other bacteria 
are resistant to the action of the sulfonamides, so that a considerable 
percentage of infections by these bacteria is not amenable to the 
treatment. Even in the case of susceptible organisms, there are other 
limitations on the usefulness of the sulfonamide compounds. Their 
antibacterial activity is greatly diminished in the presence of large 
numbers of bacterial cells, even of dead bacteria, and also by the 
presence of pus, blood serum, and various products of tissue destruc- 
tion, all of which are very likely to be found in infected wounds. 

While progress in the sulfonamide field still continues and further 
valuable discoveries may well be anticipated, the successes here have 
served to stimulate rather than to deter investigation of other, un- 
related, chemotherapeutic agents. A powerful impetus to these 
studies has been furnished by the present war with its greatly 
increased demand for better antiseptics. 

Within the past few years, considerable attention has been given 
to a number of substances which are the metabolic products of various 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 547 


micro-organisms. As yet, the study of none of these has reached the 
final stage, but already very promising preliminary results have been 
obtained. As is true of most scientific advances, the ultimate flower- 
ing of this field has been preceded by a long preparatory period of 
scattered observations whose practical implications were unrecognized 
or ignored. During the past three-quarters of a century numerous 
examples of antagonistic relationships between various micro-organ- 
isms have been noted. In many instances the inhibitory effects have 
been shown to be due to the production of toxic materials. In the 
following account an attempt will be made to sketch the development 
and present status of knowledge of the more potent antibacterial 
substances which have been obtained from bacteria and fungi. 


AGENTS FROM PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA 


In 1877 Pasteur reported that the injection of anthrax bacilli into 
susceptible animals frequently failed to elicit the disease when the 
inoculum was contaminated with “common bacteria” and suggested 
that this observation could “perhaps justify great hopes from a 
therapeutic point of view.” A dozen years later two other French 
bacteriologists, working independently, announced that by injecting 
cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the so-called bacillus of blue 
pus, into rabbits infected with anthrax, an appreciable number of the 
animals was prevented from dying of this disease. 

Pyocyanase.—This discovery aroused a great deal of interest and it 
was soon shown, first, that a sterilized culture of Pseudomonas could 
be employed in place of the living bacteria, and then that an active 
material could be obtained from the culture fluid itself after removal 
of the cells. Minute amounts of this product, originally believed to 
be an enzyme and designated “‘pyocyanase” after the old name (Pseu- 
domonas pyocyanea) of the organism, were capable of causing the 
dissolution, or lysis, of billions of cells of staphylococci, pyogenic 
streptococci, the bacilli of diphtheria, plague, typhoid, and anthrax, 
and the cholera vibrio. 

During the early years of the present century, pyocyanase was 
employed therapeutically to a considerable extent and was produced 
on a commercial scale in Germany. Favorable results were reported 
in the treatment of a large number of diseases, including anthrax, 
diphtheria, cerebrospinal meningitis, infectious catarrh, wounds and 
abscesses, as well as many infections of the eyes, mouth, and skin. 
In general the surface infections were treated with greater success 
than those of more deep-seated occurrence. Later, however, there 
began to accumulate a number of reports of negative and inconsistent 
results, and interest in the therapeutic use of pyocyanase waned. 


548 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


Studies of the physical and chemical properties of the substance also 
resulted in lack of agreement. 

The reasons for most of the observed discrepancies are now appar- 
ent. In recent years it has been demonstrated that several anti- 
bacterial substances, which differ in their mode and specificity of 
action, are produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Furthermore, dif- 
ferent strains of this organism do not behave alike in their elaboration 
of the various compounds and, moreover, for a given strain the pro- 
duction of each of the active agents is influenced by a number of 
environmental factors. The methods of extraction also are of 
importance in determining the composition of the antibacterial 
preparations. 

Pyocyanic acid.—In 1908 it was found that the bactericidal activity 
of pyocyanase, as well as of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultures, could 
be extracted by various organic solvents. That pyocyanase really was 
an enzyme had already been questioned by a number of investigators 
and this new finding was interpreted as evidence that the active agent 
was a fatlike substance. The extracts were demonstrated to possess 
the ability to dissolve, or lyse, red blood cells, as well as bacteria. 
Several investigators attempted to identify the active compound. In 
1933 an active substance which appeared to be a fatty acid was iso- 
Jated and named “pyocyanic acid.” This compound has not yet been 
identified and its precise chemical structure is unknown. It is quite 
potent against certain bacteria; complete inhibition of the growth of 
the cholera vibrio is produced by 0.001 percent, of the anthrax bacillus 
by 0.005 percent, of staphylococci by 0.02 percent. Somewhat higher 
concentrations cause lysis. Pyocyanic acid is a surface-active com- 
pound, that is, in aqueous solutions it has the property of accumulating 
at the interface between phases, such as at the water-air boundary, 
and of reducing the surface tension of the water. This property, 
which is characteristic of detergents or cleaning agents such as soap, 
seems to be of importance in its bacteriolytic action, inasmuch as a 
number of other detergents have been found to produce similar 
biological effects. 

The purest preparations of pyocyanic acid thus far tested have 
been found to be moderately toxic to mice. No attempt has yet been 
made to use the substance therapeutically. 

Pyocyanine.—One of the most obvious characteristics of Pseudo- 
monas aeruginosa is the production of a water-soluble blue pigment. 
As early as 1860 this pigment had been isolated from blue pus and 
given the name “pyocyanine.” Not until 1929, however, was its chem- 
ical nature elucidated and its synthesis accomplished in the labora- 
tory; it was the first natural product demonstrated to belong to a class 
of organic substances known as phenazonium compounds. There is 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 549 


considerable evidence that the pigment may play a role in the meta- 
bolic activities of the bacterial cell. 

In 1982 it was shown that pyocyanine is fairly strongly bactericidal. 
In 6 hours the causal organisms of anthrax and diphtheria are killed 
by 0.025 percent ; numerous other species are also susceptible, although 
to a lesser degree. The pigment is about twice as toxic for mice as is 
pyocyanic acid. Promising results have been obtained in preliminary 
trials in which the noses of diphtheria carriers were sprayed with 
pyocyanine solution. 

a-Hydroxyphenazine—In adition to pyocyanine, Pseudomonas 
aeruginosa produces a number of pigments which have been less thor- 
oughly studied. One of these, a decomposition product of pyocyanine 
known as a-hydroxyphenazine, was shown in 1935 to be bactericidal 
toward a large variety of organisms. This compound is not very 
stable, so that its activity rapidly decreases with time; in tests of 
short duration, however, it has proved to be highly potent. The 
growth of the cholera vibrio, for example, is completely inhibited by 
a concentration of 0.00013 percent. The pus-forming streptococci and 
the pneumonia bacterium are about one-half as sensitive. The toxic- 
ity to mice is less than one-fifth that of pyocyanine. Therapeutic 
trials have not yet been reported. 

The increased knowledge of the multiplicity of antibacterial agents 
produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa sheds considerable light on the 
contradictory experiences of the older workers with pyocyanase. It 
is now clear that different preparations contained these components 
in varying extent. Pyocyanine was doubtless present in many of 
them. In view of the many favorable results obtained with the old 
unstandardized preparations, a reexamination of the possible applica- 
tions of the pure components seems desirable. Against staphylococci, 
streptococci, the organisms of typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, as well 
as other micro-organisms, pyocyanine and «-hydroxyphenazine, have 
a much greater growth-inhibiting, or bacteriostatic, potency than the 
sulfonamide drugs. The action against several pathogenic fungi alse 
compares favorably with that of the common disinfectants. Owing 
to the toxicity of the Pseudomonas agents their potential usefulness 
would appear to be limited to surface or localized infections. The 
high potency against fungi which are responsible for such infections 
suggests a possible therapeutic application. 


AGENTS FROM BACILLUS BREVIS 


The remarkable diversity of the chemical transformations brought 
about by the varied bacterial population of the soil led Dubos, at the 
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, to attempt to isolate 

566766—44—36 


550 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


therefrom an organism capable of attacking Gram-positive cocci.t 
The technic adopted was to add, from time to time, suspensions of 
living streptococci and staphylococci to soil in the hope of provoking 
the development of a microbial flora able to utilize these cells. In 1989, 
after a period of 2 years, he was able to announce the success of the 
experiment. There was isolated from the soil a bacterium, identified 
as Bacillus brevis, which brought about the lysis of living staphylo- 
cocci, streptococci, and pneumococci. A short time later Hoogerheide, 
who had been working independently at the Franklin Institute, also 
reported the isolation of several strains of soil bacilli which pro- 
duced antibacterial substances. Other species, endowed with the same 
type of antagonistic activity, have been obtained also from sewage 
and from cheese. 

Tyrothricin, gramicidin, and tyrocidine——It was soon found that 
the lytic properties were exhibited not only by the living Bacillus 
brevis, but also by cell-free solutions obtained from old cultures in 
which self-digestion, or autolysis, of the bacteria had taken place. 
From such solutions there have been obtained several active fractions 
which differ in chemical composition and in biological properties. 
Apparently these various substances are derived, through the proc- 
esses of autolysis and the subsequent manipulations of extraction, 
from a single parent substance originally present in the bacterial 
cell. On acidification of the culture fluid there is obtained a protein 
precipitate from which a protein-free active substance can be ex- 
tracted with alcohol and precipitated with salt solution. The material 
obtained in this manner has been designated “tyrothricin” after 
Tyrothriz, the old generic name of a group of bacteria early recog- 
nized as having antagonistic properties. About half a gram of tyro- 
thricin can be prepared from a liter of bacterial culture. Tyrothricin 
has been further separated into two active components, named “grami- 
cidin” and “tyrocidine,” which account for approximately 20 and 50 
percent, respectively, of the parent material. 

Both gramicidin and tyrocidine have beer isolated in pure crystal- 
line state and considerable information concerning their chemical 
properties has been obtained. Both compounds are complex poly- 


1In the staining technic devised by the Danish bacteriologist Gram, the bacteria are 
treated successively with a dye, such as gentian violet, with iodine, and with alcohol. 
Those which are decolorized by the alcohol are termed Gram-negative, whereas those which 
retain the dye are Gram-positive. Although the Gram stain was introduced as a purely 
empirical procedure, it has been found to differentiate bacterial species into two fairly 
sharply defined groups which differ also in numerous structural and physiological character- 
istics. The reason for the difference in staining properties is not entirely clear but presum- 
ably is related to the properties of the cell wall. 

Of the common disease-producing cocci, the streptococci, staphylococci, and pneumococci 
are Gram-positive, whereas the gonococci and meningococci are Gram-negative. Among the 
Gram-positive bacilli are the causal organisms of diphtheria, gas gangrene, tetanus, tuber- 
culosis, leprosy, and anthrax ; Gram-negative bacilli include the agents of typhoid and para- 
typhoid fevers, bacillary dysentery, bubonic plague, and undulant fever. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 551 


peptides constructed in a fashion somewhat similar to the common 
proteins but differing from these in a number of important details. 
The precise empirical formulas are not yet known; gramicidin ap- 
pears to be approximately C,,HiosNi;0,3;, while tyrocidine may be 
CroeHiesN2eO2. or possibly a unit one-half this size. 

Although both gramicidin and tyrocidine possess antibacterial 
activity, and despite their chemical similarity, their biological proper- 
ties are quite different. The action of gramicidin is primarily bac- 
teriostatic; the great majority of Gram-positive species tested are 
highly susceptible, whereas the Gram-negative bacilli are entirely in- 
sensitive. Tyrocidine, on the contrary, exerts a marked bactericidal 
effect upon both Gram-negative and Gram-positive organisms. 

Tyrocidine causes the lysis of a number of bacterial species, whereas 
gramicidin has no such effect. It appears likely, however, that the 
dissolution is not a direct result of the action of tyrocidine but rather 
is a secondary self-digestion brought about by the bacterial enzymes 
after the cells have been killed by the bactericidal agent. Gramicidin, 
on the other hand, does not occasion the lysis of even the most sus- 
ceptible bacteria. 

Both agents cause the dissolution of red blood cells, but the 
mechanism of the action is quite different for the two substances. 
The hemolytic effect of gramicidin becomes apparent only after several 
hours, although it may be elicited by very small amounts of the 
agent. The action is completely inhibited by the presence of glucose 
or certain other carbohydrates. Tyrocidine, contrariwise, produces 
immediate hemolysis irrespective of the presence of glucose; its action, 
however, is inhibited by blood serum to a much greater degree than 
is that of gramicidin. The hemolytic activity of gramicidin and 
tyrocidine seems to be influenced by factors which are not yet entirely 
appreciated, as conflicting results have been obtained by different 
workers. 

The mechanism of the action of gramicidin and tyrocidine on cells 
has been studied to a greater extent than that of most of the other 
natural antimicrobial substances. Tyrocidine acts much like a gen- 
eral protoplasmic poison. It induces an immediate and irreversible 
cessation of metabolic activity which, in many cases, is followed by 
cellular disintegration. Its action in these respects resembles closely 
that of certain detergents, as do also its behavior as a protein pre- 
cipitant and its surface activity. 

While gramicidin has many of the physical and biological proper- 
ties of detergents, there is considerable evidence that its antibacterial 
activity is not due to these characteristics alone, although its tendency 
to concentrate at the bacterial surface well might enhance the action 
due to other properties. The effects produced by gramicidin are 


552 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


greatly influenced by the composition of the medium. In the presence 
of glucose (or some other substrates), phosphate, and potassium, low 
concentrations of gramicidin markedly stimulate the respiration of 
various cells. Small amounts of certain substances, e. g., the am- 
monium ion, prevent this stimulatory effect. Higher concentrations 
of gramicidin may cause complete inhibition of respiration. It is 
known that the cellular oxidation of carbohydrate is brought about 
by means of certain phosphoric acid compounds. Recently there has 
been procured evidence that the formation of one of these compounds, 
adenosine triphosphoric acid, may be inhibited by gramicidin. This 
agent thus does not behave as a gross protoplasmic poison but appears 
to exert its bacteriostatic effect through an interference with the 
energy-supplying processes of the cell. 

The antibacterial activity of both gramicidin and tyrocidine is 
reduced by serum and tissue extracts. Tyrocidine is inhibited also by 
proteins and peptones. Of a large number of pure substances which 
have been tested, only a few, belonging to the class of phospholipides, 
have been found to possess the ability of diminishing the gramicidin 
potency. A gramicidin-neutralizing fraction rich in phospholipides 
can also be obtained from Gram-negative bacilli; whether this ma- 
terial plays a role in the nonsusceptibility of Gram-negative organ- 
isms to gramicidin has not yet been established. 

Both gramicidin and tyrocidine are quite toxic when administered 
intravenously or intraperitoneally. This, together with the lowered 
effectiveness in the presence of various biological substances, would 
appear to preclude the therapeutic application in systemic infections. 
For the treatment of many types of localized infections the prospects 
are much brighter. A considerable number of clinical trials with 
very favorable results have already been reported. In vivo, gramicidin 
is a much more active agent than tyrocidine. In practice the mix- 
ture of the two—tyrothricin—has been used much more extensively 
than gramicidin itself, inasmuch as it appears to possess some ad- 
vantages, as well as being much more easily produced. Tyrothricin 
is now commercially available. 

Among the diseases which have shown favorable response to tyro- 
thricin therapy are inflammations of the nose and sinuses, bladder 
infections, empyema due to streptococci, postoperative wounds, and 
burns. Skin ulcers which had persisted for years, despite various 
forms of treatment, have healed after a few weeks, or even days, of 
tyrothricin therapy. In general, streptococcal infections are more 
amenable than those due to staphylococci or pneumococci. Good re- 
sults have been obtained also in the treatment of bovine mastitis, a 
streptococcal infection of the cow’s udder. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 553 


The application of tyrothricin after surgical operations on the nose, 
sinuses, and mastoid has been reported to prevent postoperative in- 
fections and so to reduce fever, swelling, and pain in a number of 
instances. There is some indication also that the process of wound 
healing may be stimulated by this agent. 

On the other hand, it must be pointed out that among even the 
susceptible species of bacteria there may exist, or be developed during 
the course of treatment, strains which are very resistant to the action 
of tyrothricin. Treatment with this material may occasionally fail 
also in the presence of a mixed bacterial infection, inasmuch as certain 
Gram-negative bacteria appear to counteract the activity against 
susceptible Gram-positive forms. A further point of importance is 
that the infected area must be accessible to local treatment. 

Obviously, gramicidin (tyrothricin) is not a cure-all but, with due 
regard for its limitations, it would appear to furnish a valuable addi- 
tion to the medical armamentarium. 


AGENTS FROM BACILLUS MESENTERICUS 


Another spore-bearing bacillus which has long been recognized as 
having antagonistic properties is Bacillus mesentericus, the so-called 
potato bacillus. In 1904 it was shown that the antibacterial principle 
occurs in the culture medium and can diffuse through a collodion mem- 
brane. In 1939 the active agent was identified as a mixture of isova- 
leric and oleic acids, both of which are well-known chemical com- 
pounds found in biological materials. Oleic acid, which is especially 
widespread among plants and animals, is the more potent of the two 
and also possesses hemolytic properties. The agents are especially 
active against diphtheria and pseudodiphtheria bacilli, although other 
bacteria are inhibited by higher concentrations. 


OTHER AGENTS OF BACTERIAL ORIGIN 


A great many instances of bacterial antagonism have been described 
and the indications are that a considerable proportion of these is due 
to the production of specific inhibitory substances. The information 
available is so fragmentary, however, that a detailed discussion of 
these agents would not appear to be justified in the present account. 
Some of the bacterial species from which cell-free antimicrobial prep- 
arations have been obtained are: Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudo- 
monas putida, Pseudomonas phosphorescens, Proteus vulgaris, Ser- 
ratia marcescens, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus albus, Kleb- 
siella pneumoniae, Vibrio comma, Bacillus adhaerens, Bacillus 
anthracis, Bacillus mycoides, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus simplex, Ba- 
cillus cereus, Escherichia coli, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 


554 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
AGENTS FROM ACTINOMYCETES 


The actinomycetes comprise a large group of organisms somewhat 
intermediate between the true bacteria and the higher fungi. They 
are very widespread in nature, occurring in soils, composts, and water 
basins; the group includes also several species which cause diseases in 
plants and animals. 

In 1890 an Italian worker observed that certain actinomycetes were 
able to destroy the cell membranes of many bacteria and fungi. In 
the ensuing third of a century no further study of this phenomenon 
appears to have been undertaken. During the past two decades, how- 
ever, investigations in a number of laboratories have provided evidence 
that several antimicrobial substances are elaborated by actinomycetes 
and that antagonistic properties are widely distributed among various 
strains of this group of organisms. To date only a few of these active 
substances have been studied to any extent. 

Actinomycetin.—In 1924 two French workers who had been study- 
ing the lysis of killed staphylococci sought to isolate, from air or 
water, micro-organisms which could bring about this process. They 
succeeded in obtaining an actinomycete which was capable of causing 
the disintegration of a large number of microbial species. 

The production of the disintegrating agent, or lysin, occurs in 
any medium which permits the growth of the actinomycete and com- 
mences at the time of spore formation; prior to this stage no activity 
can be demonstrated in either the culture medium or the cells of the 
organism. Preparations of the active principle, which has been 
designated “actinomycetin,” are protein in nature; however, as they 
are further purified, the ratio of protein content to activity decreases. 

As previously noted the living actinomycete is capable of lysing 
a great variety of living bacteria and molds. With the exception of a 
few strains of Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and 
Klebsiella pneumoniae, the micro-organisms are resistant to the cell- 
free filtrate of the actinomycete, however. But if the bacteria are 
first killed, by whatever means, they become susceptible to the sterile 
actinomycete culture filtrate. Actinomycetin preparations which 
have been concentrated to the extent of a hundredfold increase in 
potency exhibit the same type of action and specificity as the crude 
culture filtrate. It thus appears that at least two principles are in- 
volved: a lytic factor which can act only upon dead micro-organisms 
and a bactericidal factor which exists in the culture medium in a 
relatively inactive form, albeit sufficiently active to kill the few 
susceptible strains enumerated. 

Support for this view has been contributed by the recent discovery 
that on extraction of purified actinomycetin with ether there is ob- 
tained a fraction bactericidal to a number of Gram-positive bacteria. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 555 


The role of the actinomycete cells is visualized as that of freeing the 
bactericidal agent from its hypothetical inactive complex. Evidence 
for the tendency of the bactericidal substance to form such com- 
plexes is considered to be furnished by the finding that the bacteri- 
cidal potency is much less in complex media than in solutions of 
inorganic salts. 

While information on the chemical nature of the active agent is 
still very fragmentary, it is thought by some workers to be a fatty 
acid. This is very suggestive of a parallel with the agents of Bacillus 
mesentericus and of the pyocyanic acid of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. 
At least one pigment with antibacterial activity has also been isolated 
from another species of actinomycete, although most of the pig- 
ments produced by this group of organisms do not appear to have 
such activity. 

No direct therapeutic use of actinomycetin has been made; it has 
been found, however, that the actinomycete-produced lysates of a 
number of pathogenic bacteria are very good antigens and much less 
toxic than the organisms themselves. Favorable results in a number 
of cases of various infections in man have been claimed through the 
use of such lysates. 

Actinomycins A and B.—¥rom cultures of another actinomycete, 
Actinomyces antibioticus, there has been obtained a strongly anti- 
bacterial preparation which was termed “actinomycin.” Subse- 
quently this material was separated into two components, both of 
which exhibited activity. These have been designated “actinomycin 
A” and “actinomycin B.” Both substances have been obtained in 
crystalline form. 

Actinomycin A, which is a bright red pigment, has been studied 
chemically to some extent. Its structure is not yet known but it 
appears to be a polycyclic nitrogen compound; possible formulas are 
CuH;.NsO,, and C;;Hs.N;Oi... The compound has a high degree of 
antibacterial activity which, for a given organism, may be bacterio- 
static or bactericidal, depending upon the concentration and time of 
action. Gram-positive organisms are considerably more susceptible 
than the Gram-negative forms. Among the susceptible bacteria are 
streptococci and staphylococci, which are inhibited completely by con- 
centrations of 0.00001 percent; the gas gangrene bacillus, inhibited by 
0.0001 percent; and the tubercle bacillus, inhibited by 0.001 percent. 
The mechanism of the killing effect by higher concentrations appears 
to be a chemical interaction similar to that of the common antiseptics. 

Unfortunately actinomycin A is exceedingly toxic, so that its internal 
administration is precluded. Whether it would be useful in surface 
application remains to be determined. 

Actinomycin B has been studied to only a limited extent. No in- 
formation as to its chemical nature is yet available. Some difficulties 


556 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


have been encountered in obtaining preparations of uniform anti- 
bacterial activity; the substance apparently has comparatively little 
bacteriostatic activity but is more highly bactericidal than the A 
component. . 

Streptothricin.—This antibacterial agent, which is produced by 
Actinomyces lavendulae, has the properties of an organic base; up to 
the present it has not been prepared in pure condition. In the culture 
fluid it seems to be associated with protein. The crude streptothricin 
is strongly bacteriostatic toward a considerable variety of Gram-posi- 
tive and Gram-negative organisms. For example, Brucella abortus, 
the etiological agent of undulant fever, is inhibited completely by 0.001 
percent; 0.003 percent is inhibitory for the causal organisms of para- 
typhoid fever, of hog cholera, and of infectious abortion in mares. 
In higher concentrations streptothricin is also bactericidal. 

It has been reported that in guinea pigs experimentally infected with 
Brucella abortus, the pathogens can be eliminated or reduced in number 
by administration of streptothricin. 

Proactinomycin.—This name has been given to an antibacterial sub- 
stance extracted from cultures of a species of Proactinomyces. Like 
streptothricin, it seems to be an organic base. Its action is primarily 
bacteriostatic. The growth of the pneumococcus is inhibited by 
0.00007 percent; 0.0002 percent inhibits streptococci, staphylococci, 
meningococci, and anthrax bacilli. Proactinomycin is moderately 
toxic to mice. White blood corpuscles are unaffected by concentra- 
tions well in excess of those required for the inhibition of the micro- 
organisms specified above. 

Micromonosporin.—This agent, obtained quite recently from a spe- 
cies of Micromonospora, has been but little studied. It is bacterio- 
static toward a number of Gram-positive bacteria, whereas all the 
Gram-negative organisms tested have been found very resistant to 
its action. 

Lysozyme.—In 1922 Fleming discovered that various tissues and 
secretions of the body contain a substance capable of causing the dis- 
solution of a variety of bacteria. This agent, named “lysozyme,” is 
present also in egg white. A bacteriolytic substance prepared by 
Russian investigators from Actinomyces violaceus has been regarded 
as possibly identical with lysozyme, although there appear to be dif- 
ferences in certain properties of the two agents. The Actinomyces 
lysozyme, which is of protein nature, exhibits a selective action against 
certain bacterial species but can dissolve both living and dead cells. 


AGENTS FROM MOLDS 


Penicillin—In 1929 Alexander Fleming, the English bacteriologist 
who a few years previously had discovered the lysozyme of tissues, was 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 557 


making a study of staphylococci. Culture dishes of the bacteria were 
kept in the laboratory for periodic inspection, during which they 
were exposed to the air. Fleming noticed that in one dish, which had 
become contaminated with a mold (similar to the common blue mil- 
dew on jam or citrus fruits), the surrounding Staphylococcus colonies 
became transparent and were dissolved. ‘This is the type of observa- 
tion of a chance occurrence which is frequently made by scientific in- 
vestigators. But it is only by the alert, inquisitive, and trained worker 
that further exploitation is made. In the words of Pasteur: “Chance 
favors the mind that is prepared.” Fleming transferred the mold to 
a liquid nutrient solution and found that there appeared in the fluid 
a substance that was markedly inhibitory toward many of the more 
common disease-producing bacteria. The mold was later identified 
as Penicillium notatum and its bactericidal culture filtrate was des- 
ignated “penicillin.” Recently a preparation with very similar 
antibacterial properties has been obtained also from Penicillium 
chrysogenum. 

Fleming clearly realized the potential utility of the active material 
as a chemotherapeutic agent, which must have two essential character- 
istics: ability to inhibit pathogenic organisms and low toxicity toward 
living tissues. Penicillin was found to combine these properties to an 
unusual extent. It was not at all toxic to animals but was at least 
twice as powerful an inhibitor as carbolic acid toward sensitive organ- 
isms, such as the various pus-producing cocci. 

Local application of penicillin to septic wounds was tried in a 
limited number of cases with generally favorable, although not 
miraculous, results. The further investigation of the substance as a 
therapeutic agent suffered from a serious handicap—it was very diffi- 
cult to prepare in sufficiently large quantity and in purified condition, 
owing chiefly to its chemical instability which resulted in loss of anti- 
bacterial activity. In the decade following its discovery, no further 
progress along this line was made, although it was employed for the 
purpose of isolating certain types of bacteria which, on the ordinary 
culture media, were overgrown by accompanying species. By this 
means it was shown that the so-called influenza bacillus was present in 
the mouths of all normal persons examined and hence was probably 
not the causal organism of epidemic influenza, as had theretofore been 
widely assumed. More recently, penicillin has been used to isolate 
the acne bacillus from acne pustules and so to make possible a simple 
method for the preparation of autogenous vaccines of the organism. 

The discovery and rapid development of the sulfonamide drugs 
since 1935 had stimulated renewed interest in chemotherapy, and the 
success of gramicidin had directed attention to the antibiotic agents 
of microbial] origin. In 1940 a research team at Oxford University 


558 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


commenced a concerted attack on the penicillin problem from several 
directions; the promise of the initial results inspired a large number 
of investigators on both sides of the Atlantic to take up the work. In 
the United States a number of governmental laboratories are now 
participating in this research. 

Obviously the widespread utilization of any rare biological product 
would be greatly facilitated if the substance could be prepared artifi- 
cially. In recent years we have seen numerous instances of the rapid 
extension of use which follows the success of the chemist in synthesiz- 
ing natural materials; some of the vitamins are outstanding examples. 
Further than this there always exists the possibility of improving na- 
ture’s product by some modification of the chemical structure of the 
molecule. Asa matter of fact, it is not the synthesis but the deter- 
mination of the structure of the natural product which is the funda- 
mental and difficult problem, for once the chemical pattern is known 
the synthetic chemist can usually devise one or more ways to duplicate 
it by starting with much less rare and expensive materials. 

As in the famous recipe for rabbit stew, so the first requirement in 
elucidating the structure of a chemical is to obtain a supply of the pure 
material. This was the problem which confronted the Oxford work- 
ers. A method was worked out for growing the Penicillium on shal- 
low layers of liquid in special stoneware bottles for a period of 10 days 
after which the fluid was removed for extraction of the penicillin. 
All operations must be performed with the most exacting bacteriologi- 
cal cleanliness, since certain bacteria, if they gain access to the solu- 
tions, cause a marked reduction in the yield of active material. Nor- 
mally about 14 gallons of culture solution could be harvested each day, 
an amount which contains about one-half gram of penicillin, although 
only a part of this can be obtained in purified form, due to the losses 
which occur during the many stages of the purification process. 

Quite recently there has been worked out, on a laboratory scale, a 
continuous-flow method similar to that used for the production of 
vinegar. The mold is cultured in a long glass column packed with 
wood shavings. Fresh culture medium is slowly dripped in at the top 
and the fluid containing the penicillin is constantly drawn off at the 
bottom. At the time of writing (summer of 1948), a large number 
of pharmaceutical concerns are engaged in production of penicillin; 
some of these have already progressed to the pilot-plant stage. 

Penicillin has not so far been obtained in absolutely pure form, so 
that its chemical constitution cannot as yet be fully determined. For- 
tunately it has turned out that certain derivatives may be prepared 
from penicillin which, while retaining its full antibacterial activity, 
are also permanently stable and may be kept indefinitely. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 559 


The action of penicillin, like that of the various sulfonamide drugs, 
is different from that of the older antiseptics, in that these newer 
chemotherapeutic agents act only on certain strains or species of bac- 
teria and also in that their action is primarily an inhibition of the bac- 
terial development, rather than a killing of the germs. The mode of 
action of penicillin appears to be an interference with the processes of 
cell division while growth may be allowed to proceed, resulting in very 
greatly lengthened rods or swollen spheres. 

Among the micro-organisms most susceptible to penicillin in test-tube 
experiments are the gonococcus (the causal organism of gonorrhea in 
man), the meningococcus (responsible for about 70 percent of all acute 
cases of cerebrospinal meningitis), Staphylococcus aureus (the most 
frequent cause of abscesses, boils, and many surgical suppurations), 
the pneumococcus (principal etiological factor in lobar pneumonia), 
Streptococcus pyogenes (found in human infections of very varied 
types), Clostridium tetani and Clostridium welchii (the tetanus and 
gas gangrene bacilli, respectively), and the anthrax bacillus. Rela- 
tively resistant pathogenic organisms, on the other hand, include the 
bacillus of tuberculosis, the vibrio of Asiatic cholera, the organisms 
of undulant fever, and certain types of dysentery bacilli. 

The exact potency of penicillin cannot, of course, be ascertained 
until the pure compound is available. Nevertheless, the activity of 
even the impure material far exceeds that of most other antiseptics. 
Thus 1 part of penicillin in 60 million parts of culture fluid com- 
pletely inhibits the growth of staphylococci; partial inhibition is 
obtained at dilutions of more than 300 million. In comparison with 
gramicidin, the antibacterial agent obtained from certain soil bacteria, 
penicillin is 20 to 40 times as potent against staphylococci. Addi- 
tional advantages of very great importance are the remarkably low 
toxicity of penicillin toward animals and its lack of inactivation by 
pus, blood serum, or products of tissue break-down. Indeed, it has 
been reported even that the bactericidal action of penicillin, in some 
cases, is enhanced by blood and serum. It is so innocuous that it can 
be introduced directly into the eye in the treatment of 
- conjunctivitis. 

Even the first clinical trials by the Oxford workers, although per- 
formed with an impure penicillin preparation of relatively low po- 
tency and hampered by lack of material, were attended by dramatic 
results. In these studies the scarcity of the therapeutic agent was so 
great, indeed, that advantage was taken of its rapid excretion by the 
kidneys; penicillin was recovered from the urine of treated patients, 
_ repurified, and reused. 

With the increasing availability of penicillin, it has been possible 
to confirm the early promise. A successfully treated case of Sta- 


560 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


phylococcus aureus infection is illustrated in plate 5. An infection 
of this type, complicated by blood poisoning, is almost universally 
fatal. The patient, a 4-year-old girl, presumably became infected 
after biting the inside of her cheek. Redness and swelling of the 
jaw appeared, and within a few days the child’s condition had become 
critical. Much of the tissue of the floor of the mouth had been killed, 
and the tongue was nearly frozen to the hard palate. She was unable 
to sleep, could breathe only with difficulty and had a temperature of 
104°. There was evidence of pneumonia in one lung. Penicillin 
administration was begun. Within 36 hours the staphylococci had 
disappeared from the blood. Within 96 hours the child was again 
able to swallow, was breathing easily, and could take a liquid diet by 
mouth. By the next day, she was able to eat solid foods, and by the 
ninth day the temperature was normal. The total amount of penicil- 
lin administered during the 12 days of treatment was only a little 
more than 1 gram. In another, somewhat similar, case in which 
penicillin therapy was begun at an earlier stage, the damage to the 
tissues and the bacterial invasion of the blood stream were prevented. 

Many other types of staphylococcus and streptococcus infections 
have responded to penicillin. Cases of gonorrheal infections which 
were not benefited by sulfonamides have also been cured with dra- 
matic rapidity by penicillin treatment. So far, the results of exten- 
sive trials have not been reported in detail. In the United States, 
clinical studies have been organized by the National Research Council. 
Early in 1948, clinical trials were begun by the United States Army. 
Among the cases subjected to treatment were many soldiers returned 
from the Pacific area with unhealed compound fractures, osteomye- 
litis, and wounds with long-established infections. Very promising 
results have been obtained and the tests are being greatly extended. 
In animal experiments, it has been found that the early administra- 
tion of penicillin is a powerful prophylactic against gas gangrene, 
one of the most serious complications of battle and air-raid wounds. 

For systemic infections, penicillin is usually administered intra- 
venously. Inasmuch as it is destroyed by acids, inactivation occurs in 
the stomach when the drug is given by mouth. However, oral ad- 
ministration is possible, although less efficient, if large amounts are 
taken together with sodium bicarbonate to neutralize the gastric 
acidity. 

Of the chemotherapeutic agents of microbial origin which have 
thus far been studied, penicillin is preeminently the most promising. 
At the moment, the principal handicap in its application is its limited 
availability. The outlook for the future, when the problems of pro- 
duction shall have been solved, is very bright indeed. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 561 


Notatin, penatin, penicillin B.—From several laboratories has come 
evidence that certain strains of Penicillium notatwm produce, in addi- 
tion to penicillin, another antibacterial substance. Various investiga- 
tors, working simultaneously but independently, have proposed 
different names for their preparations: “notatin,” “penatin,” “peni- 
cillin B”; the available evidence, while not entirely conclusive, sug- 
gests that the active principle is the same. 

It is the most potent natural antibiotic substance so far described. 
The growth of Staphylococcus aureus, which is one of the most 
susceptible species, is inhibited by concentrations as low as 0.00000002 
percent. It is active against a large number of both Gram-negative 
and Gram-positive bacteria. The substance is bactericidal, as well 
as bacteriostatic, but does not appear to cause lysis. 

The available evidence indicates that notatin is a flavoprotein in 
which the protein is combined with flavine adenine dinucleotide. It 
functions as an enzyme which catalyzes the oxidation of glucose by 
oxygen, with the production of gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. 
Certain other sugars are oxidized also. It is believed that the anti- 
bacterial action is due to the hydrogen peroxide formed. Support 
for this view is furnished by the fact that the activity is appreciable 
only in the presence of oxygen and glucose and in the absence of 
catalase, the enzyme which promotes the destruction of hydrogen 
peroxide. The activity is reduced in the presence of fresh serum, 
owing, presumably, to its content of catalase. 

Inasmuch as the active agents have not been freed from impurities, 
the toxicity cannot be determined with certainty. Some preparations 
have been found to be rather toxic, others much less so. No detailed 
information as to the therapeutic applicability of the substance is yet 
available, although notatin has been reported as having been found 
effective in this respect. 

Penicillic acid.—This substance, which is not related to penicillin, 
despite the similarity of names, was isolated from Penicillium puber- 
ulum in 1911, at which time it was found to have an inhibitory effect 
upon the growth of certain bacteria. Interest in the substance was 
revived in recent years by the discovery of other antibacterial mold 
products. Chemically it has been shown to be y-keto-8-methoxy-é- 
methylene-A*-hexenoic acid, a type of structure hitherto unknown 
among natural products. Penicillic acid is rather strongly bacterio- 
static toward a number of organisms, some of which are resistant to 
many of the other antibacterial products of microbial origin. The 
toxicity for mice is fairly low. Therapeutic studies have not been 
undertaken up to the present time. 

Pendcidin—The name “penicidin” has been given to an antibac- 
terial substance obtained from an unnamed species of Penicillium. 


562 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The material is soluble in organic solvents, relatively thermostable, 
inactivated by alkalies but not by acids. It has not yet been isolated 
in pure form and its chemical nature and possible identity with 
previously discovered mold agents have not been determined. Lber- 
thella typhosa is inhibited by a 0.001 percent concentration of the 
partially purified preparation. 

Spinulosin and fumigatin.—During a study of the chemical prod- 
ucts of various molds, the pigments spinulosin and fumigatin were 
isolated some years ago from cultures of Penicillium spinulosum and 
Aspergillus fumigatus, respectively. Investigation of the structure 
of these substances showed them to be quite closely related, fumi- 
gatin being 8-hydroxy-4-methoxy-2,5-toluquinone, while spinulosin 
is 6-hydroxyfumigatin. Recently these compounds have been exam- 


ined for antibacterial properties and both have been found to be — 
moderately active. Spinulosin and fumigatin are less important — 


by virtue of their own potencies, however, than because of the infor- 
mation concerning the relationship between structure and activity 
which has been obtained from their study. This will be discussed 
below. 

Fumigacin—Although isolated from Aspergillus fumigatus, this 
substance is not to be confused with fumigatin. Fumigacin, which 
has been obtained in crystalline form but not yet characterized chem- 
ically, is said to be active against Gram-positive bacteria but nearly 
inactive against Gram-negative species. 

Citrinin—This is another substance previously isolated from a 
mold, Penicillium citrinum, and on recent reinvestigation found to 
possess antibacterial activity, although not to an especially marked 
extent. Its structure has been worked out as a complex substituted 
quinone; it has not yet been synthesized. 

Clavacin.—This substance, obtained from Aspergillus clavatus, is 
said to be particularly effective against Gram-negative bacteria, in- 
cluding a number of species not affected by penicillin, mandelic acid, 
or the sulfonamides. Various strains of the fungus differ greatly in 
their production of clavacin. The substance, which is rather un- 
stable, has not yet been prepared in pure form, but even the partially 
purified product exhibits a considerable measure of activity. 

Claviformin.—This material, isolated in crystalline form from the 
culture medium of Penicillium claviforme, may have the formula 
C.H,O;. It is considerably more potent than citrinin, clavacin, or 
fumigacin, although less so than penicillin. However, in view of its 


decreased activity in the presence of serum, as well as its fairly high , 


toxicity, its therapeutic application does not appear particularly 
promising. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 563 


Gliotoxin.—An antimicrobial substance isolated in crystalline form 
from Gliocladium fimbriatwm has been given the name “gliotoxin.” 
It has the empirical formula C,;H,,O,N.S, and is the first antibiotic 
compound of microbial origin which has been found to contain sulfur. 
The chemical structure has not yet been elucidated completely but it 
appears to be a condensed 8-ring compound with a unique type of 
sulfur bridge. Glotoxin is both bacteriostatic and_ bactericidal 
toward Gram-negative as well as Gram-positive organisms, Staphy- 
lococci and streptococci are completely inhibited by concentrations 
of the order of 0.0001 percent, Gram-negative bacteria by somewhat 
higher concentrations. It is toxic for higher animals in doses of 50 
to 75 milligrams per kilogram. No therapeutic trials have been 
reported. 

Aspergillic acid—Some, but not all, strains of Aspergillus flavus 
have been found to produce an antibacterial substance which has 
been designated “aspergillic acid.” The material has been obtained 
in crystalline form in yields as high as 400 milligrams per liter of 
culture fluid. The empirical formula of aspergillic acid appears to 
be C,.H,.N.O.; its chemical structure has not yet been worked out. 
In vitro it is fairly potent against certain Gram-positive cocci; 
pneumococci and hemolytic streptococci, for example, are killed by 
a concentration of about 0.0002 percent. Gram-negative bacilli are 
much more resistant to its action. 

The toxicity toward mice is not especially high. The maximal 
tolerated dose is about 200 milligrams per kilogram when given orally 
and approximately half of this when injected intraperitoneally. 
However, neither oral nor intraperitoneal administration has been 
found to exert any therapeutic effect on experimental mouse infec- 
tions with pneumococci or hemolytic streptococci, although prelimi- 
nary experiments have shown some protection in experimental 
infections with gonococci and gas gangrene bacilli. 

Aspergillin—This name has been given to an antibacterial sub- 
stance which has been obtained in partially purified form from a strain 
of Aspergillus flavus. What relation this material may have to other 
antibacterial agents of microbial origin cannot be determined from 
the limited information so far available. Making allowances for the 
impure state of the aspergillin tested, its bacteriostatic potency and 
toxicity appear to correspond approximately with those of aspergillic 
acid. 

Puberulice and puberulonic acids.—These substances have been iso- 
lated in crystalline form as metabolic products of several species of 
Penicillium. The empirical formulas are C,H,O, and C;:H,0,, re- 
spectively. The chemical constitution is unknown, but puberulonic 


564 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


acid is believed to be a quinonoid compound and puberulic acid the 
corresponding quinol. 

Both compounds inhibit the growth of a number of Gram-positive 
bacteria, puberulic acid being somewhat more effective than puber- 
ulonic. Neither shows much activity against Gram-negative species. 

Unnamed substances.—Several workers have obtained evidence of 
the production of antibacterial substances by other molds. In one 
survey of 100 fungal species, 30 were found to exhibit activity, with 
the added possibility that some of the negative species might well give 
positive results under different cultural conditions or against test 
bacteria other than those employed. In view of the existence of 
thousands of species of molds, it seems certain that many other anti- 
bacterial agents produced by these organisms remain to be discovered. 
Some yeasts, too, have been found to produce bacteriolytic substances. 


PROSPECT 


Of the score or more products of microbial origin which have been 
described here, the antibiotic activity of the great majority has been 
discovered only within the last 2 or 3 years. Most of them have not 
yet been studied sufficiently to determine what therapeutic applica- 
tions may eventually be made. It is, therefore, highly encouraging 
that some of these agents, particularly penicillin and tyrothricin, al- 
ready offer definite promise of practical utility. However, even 
though none of the presently known substances should ultimately be 
found of use in itself, the value of the rapidly increasing knowl- 
edge in this field is very great. This is true for two reasons: 
in the first place, the identification of a compound possessing some 
of the properties desirable in a chemotherapeutic agent, even though 
it may at the same time have other undesirable characteristics, opens 
the door for the chemist to manipulate the molecular architecture 
so as to enhance the one and suppress the other; secondly, studies of the 
mode of action of the available inhibitory agents upon micro-organisms 
may suggest the use of other substances, which, while chemically un- 
related, will exert similar biological effects. 

A wide range of chemical types is represented among the limited 
number of antimicrobial agents of which the composition has been 
even partially elucidated: proteins (notatin, lysozyme), polypep- 
tides (gramicidin, tyrocidine), fatty acids (pyocyanic acid, isovaleric 
acid, oleic acid, possibly actinomycetin), organic bases (streptothri- 
cin, proactinomycin), quinones (citrinin, fumigatin, spinulosin, pos- 
sibly puberulonic acid), heterocyclic compounds (gliotoxin, actino- 
mycin A, pyocyanine, a-hydroxyphenazine). Obviously, complete 
knowledge of the constitution is necessary before the relationship be- 
tween structure and biological properties can be studied. 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 565 


So far such studies have been made in only one or two cases but 
these have proved very fruitful. It has been mentioned that the 
two mold products, fumigatin and spinulosin, are structurally very 
similar, differing only in the possession of an additional hydroxyl 
group by the latter. Spinulosin was found to have only about one- 
tenth the antibacterial potency of fumigatin. This unexpected dis- 
covery that the activity was markedly decreased by the introduction 
of a hydroxyl group led to a study of a considerable number of sub- 
stituted toluquinones and benzoquinones, from which several impor- 
tant generalizations concerning the effect of structure on activity 
could be drawn. As a valuable byproduct of the investigation, it 
_ was found that several of the compounds tested were more potent 
than fumigatin itself. 

A variety of effects is produced by the different antibacterial agents 
of microbial origin. At the one extreme are those like actinomycetin 
and lysozyme which cause the disintegration of the bacterial cells. 
Others, such as gramicidin, may also produce dissolution but pre- 
sumably only through the self-digestion brought about by the enzymes 
of the killed cells. Killing without lysis is brought about by a num- 
ber of substances: pyocyanine, clavacin, fumigacin, gliotoxin, notatin, 
etc. The least drastic action is that of such agents as actinomycin 
which are primarily bacteriostatic, preventing growth or reproduction 
without killing the cells. 

As might be expected, an even greater diversity appears to exist 
among the mechanisms by which the antibacterial effects are brought 
about. In very few cases has much insight been gained into these 
mechanisms, but progress is being made rapidly. 

Ehrlich and other early workers in the field of chemotherapy pro- 
ceeded largely on the assumption that the most effective agents would 
be those which produced the maximum killing of the pathogens 
without greatly damaging the cells of the host, a sort of selective 
sledge-hammer action. In later years it has become apparent, how- 
ever, that actual killing of the parasite by the chemical agent itself 
may not be at all necessary. The natural defense mechanisms of 
the body in many cases are able to cope with a limited number of 
invaders and can effect their elimination if the bacterial multiplica- 
tion can be prevented. Prevention of reproduction can be achieved 
through interference with some metabolic process of the micro-organ- 
ism and, since the biochemical processes of the bacterial cell differ 
in numerous respects from those of higher animals, there exists the 
possibility that there may be found subtle methods of interference 
which will be relatively innocuous to the host. 

An outstanding example of such a state of affairs is furnished by 
the action of sulfanilamide. One of the essential growth factors, 

566766—44——37 


566 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


or vitamins, for various bacteria is p-aminobenzoic acid which must 
be available if these organisms are to multiply in the infected animal. 
The utilization of this substance is effected through the agency of 
certain enzymes of the bacterial cell. Now it has long been known 
that compounds structurally similar to those upon which the enzyme 
normally acts may, if furnished together with the natural substrate, 
compete with it for the enzyme and so prevent or retard the normal 
interaction. In just this way the utilization of p-aminobenzoic acid 
is prevented by the presence of the chemically related sulfanilamide. 
This mechanism was not at all understood at the time of the intro- 
duction of sulfanilamide, of course, but it appears now that a similar 
principle may obtain in the action of many, though not all, other 
antibacterial agents. This has been indicated above in the discussion © 
of gramicidin, one of the few microbial agents of which, to date, 
the mode of action is at all understood. In this connection it may 
be significant also that a-hydroxyphenazine, one of the antibacterial 
substances produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, bears a certain 
structural similarity to riboflavin, or vitamin B,. 

The inhibitory effect of notatin, on the other hand, appears to be 
of a quite different nature, being occasioned by the toxicity of the 
hydrogen peroxide which it produces. 

An interesting phase of the mechanism of action is the high degree 
of specificity for certain micro-organisms exhibited by many of the 
agents. In a number of cases this specificity appears to parallel 
closely the Gram-staining reaction. Better understanding of the 
factors responsible for bacterial differences in this staining technic 
may conceivably aid in the further development of other specific 
chemical inhibitors. 

Tt seems axiomatic now that a practical chemotherapeutic agent 
must be inhibitory toward the pathogen, not merely in vitro but 
under the conditions existing in the diseased host, and that it should 
exert a minimal deleterious effect on the latter. There are, in addi- 
tion, a number of subsidiary desiderata, such as convenient mode of 
administration, stability in the body and during storage, etc. In the 
past these requirements have not always been fully appreciated. 
Before the etiology of infectious disease was understood, the search 
for chemical specifics was of necessity a trial and error affair. With 
the recognition of pathogenic micro-organisms came the idea of 
chemical bullets fatal to the parasite but not the host. Knowledge 
of the chemical structure of such bullets furnished guiding principles, 
according to which better ammunition could be molded. Increased 
knowledge of the precise means by which inhibition of bacterial 
activities can be effected and of bacterial physiology in general may 
be expected to lead to a new phase in the development of chemo- 


CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS—WEINTRAUB 567 


therapy. It is in this respect that the microbial products may be of 
greatest value, since even at this early stage of their study many 
new avenues of exploration have been opened up. Through some of 
these, conversely, will come better understanding of the physiology 
and nutrition of micro-organisms and, in all likelihood, of higher 
animals also. 

In passing, mention may be made of another possible application 
of these agents, namely, in the control of certain plant diseases. Very 
little has been done along this line and its practicability cannot yet be 
forecast. However, the few experiments which have been carried 
out indicate that the treatment of fungus-infested soil or seeds with 
certain bacterial preparations may reduce seed decay and the damping 
oft of the seedlings. 

Finally, attention should be directed to other roles of the antimicro- 
bial substances of microbial origin which may possibly be of far 
greater significance than any eventual therapeutic application. It 
has long been realized that countless numbers of pathogenic bacteria, 
such as those responsible for pneumonia, diphtheria, plague, dysentery, 
cholera, tuberculosis, etc., gain access to the soil via the excreta or 
remains of diseased organisms. Yet the soil is not a source of epi- 
demics of these diseases and, indeed, the pathogenic micro-organisms 
cannot be recovered from the soil in signficant numbers. It is hence 
obvious that the survival of such forms in the soil is very limited. The 
suggestion was made long ago that other soil-inhabiting microbes, an- 
tagonistic to the pathogens, might be at least partially responsible for 
the rapid disappearance of the latter. The results of recent work lend 
much support to this view, so that it appears entirely likely that anti- 
microbial agents, such as those described here, may be of great impor- 
tance in the natural control of infectious disease. Possibly this may 
apply to diseases of plants, as well as to those of animals. 

Certain of the antibiotic microbial substances may, perhaps, play 
an even more intimate role in the natural control of some superficial 
infections in man. The skin is a nearly constant habitat of certain 
micro-organisms, some of which are known to form antimicrobial pro- 
ducts. Whether these actually serve to protect against skin infections 
is not known, but there is a little circumstantial evidence indicating 
that the normal skin flora may be absent or altered in cases of some 
fungus infections. The mouth and intestinal tract, too, harbor a bac- 
terial flora which conceivably could be of importance in the control of 
certain infections. 

It is hoped that this brief and incomplete account of the antibiotic 
substances of microbial origin will have served to call attention to a 
field of inquiry, as yet merely scratched, whose further cultivation 
may well be expected to contribute greatly to the welfare and scientific 
advancement of man. 


568 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


June 1944. 


Notre.—During the year, since the preparation of the foregoing account, many 
notable advances have been made. Of greatest immediate interest are those 
relating to penicillin. Twenty-one plants for the manufacture of this drug are 
being erected in the United States and Canada, at a total cost of nearly $20,000,- 
000. During the year production has been increased by more than 10,000 percent, 
and the present program calls for a further fivefold increase. Concurrently, 
the price has been reduced markedly and will doubtless fall much lower. The 
great potency of penicillin is emphasized when it is pointed out that the projected 
maximum production of these 21 plants will aggregate only about 9 pounds of 
the pure material per day, an amount, however, which is sufficient for the treat- 
ment of approximately 10,000 serious cases. 

Much of the credit for making possible the production program is due to the 
Northern Regional Research Laboratory of the United States Department of 
Agriculture which, through selection of better strains of the mold and improvement 
of the culture medium, has increased greatly the yields obtained. 

Penicillin has been isolated in pure crystalline form. Information as to its 
structure and synthesis, however, is at present classified as a military secret. 

Considerable additional experience in the clinical use of penicillin has been 
gained; it has been found very effective in treatment of pneumococcie pneu- 
monia and possibly may prove of value against syphilis. 

Space permits brief mention of only two of the many recent developments in 
other phases of the field of microbial antibiotic substances. 

It has been shown that the products isolated from a number of molds and 
designated by various workers as claviformin, clavacin, clavatin, and patulin 
are identical and have the formula C;H.O.. This substance has been claimed 
to be efficacious in treatment of the common cold. 

Among the newly discovered antibiotics, special interest attaches to the find- 
ing that an antibacterial substance is produced by the unicellular green alga 
Chlorella when grown under autotrophic conditions. This material, named 
chiorellin, is active against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms; 
it has not yet been obtained in a pure state. . 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Weintraub PLATE 1 


* Dee eee at eee es 
iat eter! G3 Si roe +h 


cart 


¢ 


4 


q 


| 
1] 
i 


1. Photomicrograph of crystals of gramicidin. 225. 2. Photomicrograph of crystals of tyrocidine hydro- 
chloride. 320. 


(From Dubos and Hotchkiss, Trans. and Stud. Coll. Physicians, Philadelphia, April 1942.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Weintraub PLATE 2 


DEMONSTRATION OF THE GROWTH-INHIBITING EFFECT OF ACTINOMYCIN. 


The substance, applied in the cross-shaped groove, diffuses some distance into the agar and prevents the 
growth of gram-positive bacteria (2= Bacillus mycoides; 4=Sarcina lutea) but not of gram-negative bacteria 
(1= Escherichia coli; 3= Azotobacter beijerincki). (Courtesy Waksman and Woodr uff, Journal of Bacteri- 
ology, August 1941.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Weintraub PLATE 3 


Penicillium colony. 


Staphylococci under- 
going lysis. 


Normal staphylococcal 
colony. 


PHOTOGRAPH OF A CULTURE PLATE SHOWING THE DISSOLUTION OF STAPHYLOCOC- 
CUS COLONIES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF A COLONY OF PENICILLIUM NOTATUM. 


(From the publication of Fleming announcing the discovery of penicillin, in British Journal of Experimental 
Pathology for 1929.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Weintraub PLATE 4 


EFFECT OF PENICILLIN ON GROWTH AND CELL DIVISION CF 
STAPHYLOCCOCUS AUREUS. 


1, control culture in broth, after 24 hours; 2, 3, 4, cultures in broth containing 0.00009 percent penicillin, 
after 3, 5, and 24 hours respectively. Penicillin permits growth of the cells but interferes with their normal 
division and separation. (From Smith and Hay, Journal of the Franklin Institute, June 1942.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1943.—Weintraub PLATE 5 


ey 6 
1 and 2, front and side views of patient at onset of penicillin therapy. Extensive facial cellulitis and edema 
of both eyes may be noted; patient moribund; 3, appearance of child 96 hours later; 4, appearance of patient 


9 days after onset of treatment; 5 and 6, front and side views of patient before dismissal. Complete recovery. 
(Courtesy W. E. Herrell, Proc. Staff Meetings Mayo Clinic, March 1943.) 


4 


we see atta Pa 


SULFONAMIDES IN THE TREATMENT OF WAR WOUNDS 
AND BURNS! 


By CuHartes L. Fox, Jr., M. D. 
Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and Surgeons 


One of the major problems of global warfare is the immediate 
medical care of those injured by the ruthlessness of mechanized war- 
fare and aerial bombardment. Our Government has mustered every 
possible resource to meet this medical emergency. 

It is indeed ironic that the horror of war casualties has stimulated 
tremendous progress in medical research. Under the Office of Scien- 
tific Research and Development in Washington, specialized commit- 
tees, such as the Committee on Medical Research, have contracted 
with scientific institutions throughout the nation for specific, vital 
war research on problems such as the treatment of shock, the control 
of malaria, the use of sulfonamides in wounds and burns, and many 
others. New developments are communicated directly to representa- 
tives of the armed forces—almost from the test tube to the battlefield. 

Let us now focus on the problem of war wounds and burns and see 
the progress that has been made. To understand the treatment, at- 
tempt to visualize exactly what happens. A man is engaged in com- 
bat. Suddenly he is struck by a bullet or shell fragments, or his 
clothes may be set on fire, or he may be flung off his ship into water 
covered with burning oil. Within a very short time help arrives. 

Through first-aid courses you have learned enough to recognize 
the immediate problem: treatment for shock and control of bleeding. 

Now this is where recent research has made an important contri- 
bution. Patients in shock from burns should not be “kept warm” 
or have “heat applied” with hot blankets or hot water bottles. Care- 
ful studies have shown that room temperature (70°-75°) is best; that 
the extremes of heat or cold are definitely harmful. 

After shock has been treated, the next problem is to prevent infec- 
tion. Gunshot wounds are relatively clean but, since bacteria that 
cause serious infection are everywhere about us, most wounds and 


1 Address delivered to the Biological Sciences Group, Special Libraries Association, at 
their annual conference, 1943. The recent research mentioned is work done under a con- 
tract, recommended by the Committee on Medical Research, between the Office of Scientific 
Research and Development and Columbia University. 


569 


570 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


practically all burns are potentially infected. The word potentially 
is used because frequently bacteria may be present but no infection 
will develop provided the bacteria do not gain the upper hand. 

For example, in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, only 1 
out of every 25 soldiers was killed in battle but 1 of every 2 soldiers— 
50 percent of the army—died of infections in hospitals. 

That was before anything was known about bacteria. Then fol- 
lowed the great discoveries, by Pasteur, Koch, Welch, and many 
others, of the bacteria that cause infectious diseases. Lord Lister 
then developed surgical asepsis—which means simply keeping bac- 
teria from getting into open wounds. 

These great advances were reflected in the medical history of the 
last war. To understand the present tremendous progress let us com- 
pare some results from the last war with similar cases as described 
by Capt. Reynolds Hayden after the Pearl Harbor raid. In World 
War I, gunshot wounds of the abdomen resulted in 60 to 80 percent 
mortality; at Pearl Harbor the mortality from these cases was less 
than 1 percent, and recent reports from the Solomon Islands place 
the mortality from these cases at less than 5 percent. 

Medical officers from all parts of the world who have been treating 
patients under a variety of circumstances have agreed unanimously 
that the sulfonamide drugs have been in large measure responsible for 
this great improvement. Now what are these drugs and how do they 
help accomplish miracles? 

It is interesting that the first reports of the amazing chemical that 
cured bacterial infections came from Germany in 1935. Domagk, 
of the notorious German chemical and dye trust, reported that he had 
discovered a red powder which when fed to mice infected with virulent 
hemolytic streptococci would save all the treated animals while the 
untreated control animals died in one day. Furthermore, to make the 
picture confusing, he stated that this red powder had no effect whatso- 
ever against the same bacteria in the test tube. This made everyone 
very skeptical even though reports of miraculous cures of patients 
continued to come out of Germany. Some English and French research 
workers wanted to repeat these experiments but the French couldn’t 
get any of the red powder from the dye trust. Fortunately, a brilliant 
French organic chemist figured out what was in the red powder and 
discovered how to make it. 

Then the French bacteriologists made an amazing discovery—most 
of the big red molecule wasn’t really necessary at all—only a small 
part of the molecule, the sulfanilamide part, was needed to save the 
infected mice. And equally amazing, whereas the big red molecule of 
the Germans had no effect on bacteria in the test tube, the small sulfa- 
nilamide part could stop the growth of bacteria in the test tube as 


SULFONAMIDES—FOX by el 


well as in the body. Since this sulfanilamide part had first been made 
in 1908 by Gelmo—who, by the way, had found that this chemical 
helped dyes stick to wool—there were no patent restrictions and every 
chemical company began making sulfanilamide so that doctors every- 
where could try it out. 

In the meanwhile research was conducted in many laboratories, 
including this, to determine how sulfanilamide worked. 

It was soon found that bacteria were not killed by the drug but 
that their rate of multiplication was temporarily retarded. This 
was called bacteriostasis. In the animal organism, this retardation 
aided the white blood cells to gain the upper hand and effectively 
dispose of the inhibited bacteria. Furthermore, this bacteriostatic 
effect did not begin immediately but only after a lag of several hours 
during which time the bacteria in the drug environment grew just as 
well as the control bacteria. It is possible that this delay in action 
represented the time needed for conversion of the drug itself by oxida- 
tion to an active principle. 

A recent discovery, however, has led to another explanation. That 
is Woods’ observation that para-aminobenzoic acid almost specifically 
nullifies the action of sulfanilamide, and that there is a definite quanti- 
tative relationship; i. e., one part of PAB can “block” or nullify 
5,000 parts of sulfanilamide. This ratio obtains regardless of which 
bacterium is used for the test. Woods suggested that PAB is an 
essential metabolite for the bacteria and that sulfanilamide because 
of its chemical similarity “blocks” the utilization of PAB by bacteria. 
Although PAB has been shown to be an essential growth factor for 
two nonpathogenic bacteria, it has not yet been shown to participate 
in the metabolism of pathogenic bacteria so the mechanism of the 
definite antisulfonamide action of PAB remains to be discovered. 

It is important to differentiate PAB from the other so-called “inhib- 
itors” of sulfanilamide. Pus, peptone, devitalized tissue, and certain 
bacterial extracts have been asserted to “inhibit” the action of sulfa- 
nilamide, Careful study has shown, however, that in general these 
substances improve the growth of bacteria so that the drug has to 
grapple with more vigorously growing organisms. These are quite 
different from PAB which does not appear to alter the growth of 
bacteria, nevertheless definitely inhibits sulfanilamide bacteriostasis. 
The practical importance of this distinction will be clarified below. 

During this time chemists were attempting to synthesize sulfanil- 
amide like compounds which might be more potent and more effective 
against a wider variety of bacteria than sulfanilamide itself. Sulfa- 
pyridine was the first important improvement and established its 
merit by the success attained in the treatment of pneumonia. Soon 
afterward, sulfathiazole was synthesized. This substance is free of 


572 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


many of the unpleasant and dangerous complications of sulfapyridine 
and issomewhat more effective. Sulfadiazine, the latest of this group, 
is about as effective as sulfathiazole but is less toxic and is easily tol- 
erated by most people. Up to this point the usefulness of these 
drugs has been evaluated for systemic diseases like pneumonia, men- 
ingitis, or infection of the blood stream with streptococcus. In these 
cases sulfonamides are given by mouth and the drug is distributed 
through the body. A localized infection in one part of the body like 
a limb or the abdomen can be treated by placing the drug directly in 
the wound in contact with the infection zone. This provides a high 
concentration of drug immediately in the dangerous infection zone 
without subjecting the entire body to the treatment. 

There are, however, certain practical difficulties. These drugs do 
not dissolve well and tend to lump or “cake” when poured into wounds. 
In addition, pus and partly devitalized tissues are excellent nourish- 
ment for the bacteria and sometimes interfere with the action of the 
sulfonamides. 

Studies in this laboratory were focused on the local use of these 
drugs as a problem of military importance. It soon became apparent 
that the order of increasing therapeutic potency—sulfanilamide, sul- 
fapyridine, sulfathiazole, and sulfadiazine—was a consequence of a 
single physicochemical characteristic: increasing degrees of ionization 
of these weak acids. It was of further interest that the more ef- 
fective drugs were likewise more effective in overcoming the block- 
ing effect of PAB. It was then found that acidity which reduced 
the ionization of these drugs likewise reduced their activity against 
bacteria. In addition, acidity also reduced the solubility of these 
substances. 

Measurements at the bedside showed that infected wounds usually 
become extremely acidic. This acidity is sufficient to reduce markedly 
the antibacterial activity of sulfanilamide and sulfapyridine and to 
prevent sulfathiazole or sulfadiazine powder from freely dissolving 
in the infection zone. In addition, this acidity tends to destroy the 
white blood corpuscles or leucocytes. Since these cells are needed 
to dispose of the sulfonamide-treated bacteria, they must be preserved 
to help eradicate invading bacteria. Clinical trials have shown that 
by using the soluble sodium salts of sulfathiazole or sulfadiazine (in- 
stead of the insoluble acids themselves) the interference of wound 
acidity can be minimized and wound infections can be controlled. 
The chemically “activated” drug is held in solution in the infection 
zone; and, with the cooperation of the leucocytes, speedily eradicates 
the bacteria. 

It is important to realize that this can be accomplished without 
harming the tissues. On the other hand, antiseptics such as iodine 


SULFONAMIDES—FOX Hie 


kill bacteria but also destroy tissue cells in the wounds. This is one 
of the greatest virtues of the sulfonamides—their selective action 
against bacteria without damaging tissue cells. 

With this background you might predict that burns would be par- 
ticularly suited for local sulfonamide therapy. Insofar as burns rep- 
resent destruction of the skin, which is man’s natural barrier against 
infection, sulfonamides are valuable in preventing bacteria from 
establishing infection in the damaged areas. But destruction of the 
skin also presents another serious problem—loss of the mechanical 
covering of the underlying tissues. The heat of a burn causes the tis- 
sues to become greatly swollen and waterlogged with a plasmalike 
fluid. Loss of the skin covering from burns permits the escape of 
this fluid and aggravates the shock. Many types of substitute cover- 
ings have been proposed but the most satisfactory seems to be a new 
pseudo skin formed in the burned region from the damaged skin. To 
accomplish this, tannic acid has been used for years to coagulate the 
burned skin and produce a hard, stiff, adherent covering known as an 
eschar. 

Now, tannins are used in the leather industry to “tan” animal 
skins and convert them into leather. The late Charles Wilson, a 
leather chemist, showed that tannic acid itself caused animal skins 
to become swollen and unfit for leather. In contrast, however, he 
found that when tannic acid is neutralized to the slightly alkaline 
reaction of the tissues, skins can be “tanned” without swelling, and 
soft, pliable leather is formed. Similarly, when neutralized tannic 
acid is used on burned human skin, very little swelling occurs and a 
soft, pliable covering is formed. This effectively prevents loss of the 
plasmalike tissue fluids. In addition, pain is alleviated immediately. 

This neutralized or slightly alkaline tannic acid works very well 
with the sodium salts of the sulfonamides. In the past, tannic acid 
itself has been used with the sulfonamides but too frequently infec- 
tions have occurred under the hard eschar of coagulated burned skin. 
The probable explanation is that the acidity of the tannic acid chem- 
ically inactivated the sulfonamide as described above. The neutral- 
ized tannic acid, on the other hand, keeps the sulfonamide in solution 
in the activated ionized form. The trials in human burns up to 
the present have indicated that this combination effectively prevents 
infection. 

The mixture is prepared in ointment form so that it can be quickly 
and easily applied and then covered with a light protective bandage. 
Since the soluble sulfonamide is brought into immediate contact with 
the zone of potential infection, no additional drug by mouth is neces- 
sary. It is not understood how this mixture relieves the pain, but the 
fact remains that the pain disappears after applying the ointment. 


574 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


After a week the dressing is removed. Most of the ointment is 
found to have disappeared but the burn is covered with a soft, pliable 
protective eschar. Regeneration of new skin will occur under this 
covering provided that infection does not stifle this process. 

Treatment in this phase follows a cardinal principle of sulfonamide 
therapy—maintaining the concentration of drug in the infection zone 
as long as any bacteria may be present. This is accomplished by 
placing gauze impregnated with petrolatum, paraffin, and sodium 
sulfathiazole on the burned areas. 

When the skin is completely destroyed, skin from another part of 
the body must be grafted to make up the loss. To insure that the 
grafts will grow and not be overrun by spreading infection, addi- 
tional sodium salts of the sulfonamides are used in the grafted areas. 

This brief report has given you a glimpse of the local uses of sulfon- 
amides. They are used first in the fresh wound or burn to prevent 
the development of infection; then they are used to keep down infec- 
tion while healing occurs or when skin grafts are used to cover the 
defect. Recent research has shown that infected wounds become 
acidic and that when the acidity is overcome the drugs are “activated” 
and in solution in the infection zone. It remains for future research 
to discover additional improvements that may further reduce the 
present low incidence of infection in wounds and burns. 


THE YELLOW FEVER SITUATION IN THE AMERICAS? 


By Witpur A. SAWYER 
Director, International Health Division, The Rockefeller Foundation 


The early history of yellow fever, dominated by records of epi- 
demics in cities and outbreaks on ships, was largely characterized by 
waves of the disease. ‘There were outstanding epidemic years in which 
the disease extended to the seaport cities of Spain, to Philadelphia, 
and to New York, or up the Mississippi to Memphis and beyond, and 
also years in which there was widespread involvement of Central 
America and Mexico. The same changeable epidemic picture has been 
observed in West Africa and South America. The disease was never- 
theless continuously present for long periods in certain cities, like 
Habana and Guayaquil, where the supply of susceptible persons and 
an abundance of aegypti mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) permitted the 
disease to appear year after year. The outstanding characteristics 
of the historic yellow fever picture were sudden epidemic extensions 
of the disease far beyond any known endemic foci, followed by absence 
of the disease or relative quiescence. 


THE SHIFTING LOCALIZATION OF JUNGLE YELLOW FEVER 


Observations during the past few years in several countries of South 
America suggest that jungle yellow fever resembles, more closely 
than was at first apparent, the old-time urban aegypti-transmitted 
disease in its tendency toward wavelike epidemics and shifting local- 
ization. The world-wide yellow fever immunity survey, carried out 
from 1931 to 1937, by testing human sera from many countries by 
means of the mouse-protection test, showed that immunizing infec- 
tions had recently occurred in many places previously supposed to be 
free of infection (Sawyer, Bauer, and Whitman, 1937; Soper, 1937a) 
and the systematic collection and histologic examination of liver speci- 
mens in South America showed that fatal cases of yellow fever were 
occurring in scattered locations in the newly revealed endemic areas 


1 The observations on which this paper is based have been made in large part by members 
of the staff of the International Health Division of The Rockefeller Foundation and of the 
health authorities of the governments with which the Division is collaborating. The paper 
is here reprinted by permission from the Proceedings of the Highth American Scientific 
Congress, vol. 6, 1942. 


575 


576 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


in South America. The tendency was to consider the disease in these 
areas as more or less static although the first observation of proved 
jungle yellow fever was made during a sharp epidemic in the Valle do 
Chanaan in Brazil (Soper et al., 1933). The very fact that jungle 
yellow fever was transmitted only under biological conditions pecu- 
liar to a forest environment with its special insects and animals would 
seem also to limit the spread as jungle yellow fever. It has, however, 
become increasingly clear that jungle yellow fever may sweep as an 
epidemic through a wide extent of the favorable environment and then 
become urban, aegypti-transmitted yellow fever when it reaches a 
community in which that mosquito abounds. That such spread of 
yellow fever from jungle to city has not been observed to occur re- 
cently needs special comment. 


THE ABSENCE OF AEGYPTI-TRANSMITTED EPIDEMICS AND 
THE DANGER OF THEIR REAPPEARANCE 


A striking and reassuring feature of the present situation in the 
Western Hemisphere is the absence of the classical type of yellow 
fever outbreak, in which the disease is transmitted by the long- 
recognized mosquito vector Aedes aegypti and tends to be localized in 
cities and to invade the channels of commerce. For 3 years no reports 
of such outbreaks have been confirmed in the Americas. The credit 
must rest largely with those who have continued and perfected the 
control of Aedes aegypti, so successfully begun by Gorgas and Oswaldo 
Cruz, for the threat of infection from areas of endemic and epidemic 
jungle yellow fever in the interior of South America appears to have 
been continuous for an undetermined period extending far into the 
past. Were it not for the noninfectibility of Rio de Janeiro in 1938, 
owing to well-organized aegypti control, we might have seen another 
serious epidemic in that city, with spread to other communities and 
shipping, for Soper (1938) has reported that four persons infected in 
a nearby epidemic of jungle yellow fever were known to have come 
into the city without causing any local infections. 

That jungle yellow fever is the same disease as urban yellow fever 
is well established. That it may be transmitted by Aedes aegypti 
has been repeatedly demonstrated in the laboratory (Whitman and 
Antunes, 1938), and on one occasion the establishment of yellow fever 
of jungle origin in a Brazilian town and its transmission there by 
Aedes aegypti were observed (Walcott et al., 1937). Some risk of 
urban yellow fever epidemics will remain as long as jungle yellow 
fever persists. Inasmuch as the possibility of complete extermination 
of the disease now seems remote if not impossible, the health author- 
ities are faced with the problem of choosing wisely between the avail- 
able methods of confining jungle yellow fever to the areas in which 
it is endemic, reducing the human involvement within these areas, 


YELLOW FEVER—SAWYER ny Wt 


and protecting threatened cities and rural populations against 
infection. 

The greatest disaster which yellow fever could bring would be the 
renewed involvement of large urban populations in aegypti-spread 
yellow fever, particularly if the cities affected were seaports from 
which the disease might easily spread to other seaports as well as to 
the surrounding towns. It is therefore a matter of moment that the 
methods of preventing urban yellow fever through suppression of 
Aedes aegypti have been so perfected by the Brazilian Yellow Fever 
Service that any city may easily solve its yellow fever problem without 
excessive cost by making itself noninfectible and may maintain this 
condition. 


METHOD IN USE TO PREVENT ARGYPTI-TRANSMITTED 
YELLOW FEVER 


The essential improvements of method that have made it possible 
to reduce the breeding of Aedes aegypti almost to the point of local 
extermination have been described by Soper (1937b). The weekly 
inspection of premises for aegypti larvae and the destruction of breed- 
ing places are being supplemented by the search for adult mosquitoes 
by special squads. If any are found, the breeding foci are sought out 
and destroyed. ‘To render the destruction of foci as certain as possible, 
petroleum (3 parts fuel oil and 1 part kerosene) is placed on water 
found to contain larvae. The oil and the necessary subsequent clean- 
ing are much more likely to destroy mosquito eggs than the older 
method of merely emptying out the water. Such methods have so 
reduced breeding that it has been possible in many cities to lengthen 
the period between house inspections and thus to lower the cost of 
the service. 

These methods make it entirely practicable for cities to acquire and 
maintain complete immunity to yellow fever regardless of the degree 
of exposure. The nearer to jungle yellow fever the more urgent the 
precautions, but it must be kept in mind that the critical distances 
have been greatly extended by the increased rapidity of travel, 
especially by airplane. Those cities and towns through which yellow 
fever would have to pass in order to spread from the jungle areas 
or to invade an uninfected country have a special responsibility for 
keeping themselves noninfectible. 


THE IDENTIFICATION OF YELLOW FEVER 


To be completely on their guard against aegypti-transmitted yellow 
fever, the health authorities need to be in a position to recognize yel- 
low fever immediately if it should appear, particularly if adequate 
steps have not already been taken to make their cities noninfectible. 
The history of yellow fever contains many instances in which failure 


578 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


to suspect yellow fever or disagreement as to the diagnosis have caused 
the loss of valuable time. No longer is it sufficient to accept as final 
the weighed opinion of the experienced clinician, although a decision 
on the basis of symptoms may be all that is possible before the first pre- 
cautionary measures have to be taken. For the final decision as to 
the nature of a case or outbreak, the laboratory is now giving con- 
clusive information even when the cases are clinically mild and lack 
nearly all the well-known classical symptoms (Sawyer, 1939). In 
such cases blood specimens are drawn aseptically as early as possible 
during the acute disease and again 3 weeks after the onset. If the 
serum from both specimens is examined by means of the mouse- 
protection test in a yellow fever laboratory, and the first specimen 
gives no protection against yellow fever virus while the second protects 
definitely, the case is one of yellow fever. If neither or both speci- 
mens give definite protection, the illness must be some other disease. 
Where a more serious investigation is required, the attempt is made to 
isolate the virus itself from cases during the first 3 days of illness 
by injecting blood serum from the sick person intracerebrally in 
amounts of 0.03 ce. into six susceptible mice. Any virus thus isolated 
may be studied in detail in the laboratory. Great care must be exer- 
cised to prevent infectious blood from coming into contact with the 
hands of a nonimmune investigator. These methods establish the 
diagnosis beyond dispute whenever the case has been seen early. If 
there are fatal cases, it is important to obtain at least a specimen of 
liver by autopsy or puncture with the viscerotome and to send it in 
10 percent formalin to a pathologist acquainted with the lesions of 
yellow fever. The determination of the nature of the disease in the 
individual case is, however, only one step in the thorough epidemio- 
logic investigation necessary for the adequate study of an outbreak 
of yellow fever. 


THE PROBABLE ABSENCE OF YELLOW FEVER OUTSIDE 
SOUTH AMERICA 


When adequate in number, sufficiently representative, and com- 
pletely negative, protection tests give the strongest possible evidence 
of the absence of yellow fever, whether transmitted by aegypti or 
the unknown jungle vectors. The results of protection tests of sera 
from North America, Central America, and the West Indies were 
published by Sawyer, Bauer, and Whitman early in 1937. The speci- 
mens had been collected by many cooperating persons from 1932 
through the early part of 1986. When the collection began, jungle 
yellow fever had not been discovered or defined, and fewer specimens 
were taken in rural or forest environment than would otherwise have 
been the case. Moreover, a brief survey with completely negative 


YELLOW FEVER-—SAWYER 579 


results only in young children could not be accepted as fully conclu- 
sive evidence of the absence of yellow fever, and this was the only 
evidence available in some countries. The disease had been present 
in E] Salvador in the form of a sudden epidemic of unknown origin 
as late as 1924 and had been widespread in Central America and 
Mexico in 1921, and consequently many adult immunes were discovered. 
The results of the survey were in general consistent with the complete 
disappearance of yellow fever from the entire region, including North 
America, Central America, and the West Indies, but the finding of 
three protective sera among those from 321 Mexican children under 
10 years of age made it seem probable that unrecognized yellow fever 
infection had existed in that country as late as 1925, when the youngest 
of the three immune children was born. It was apparent that yellow 
fever might still be lingering in Mexico or some one of the Central 
American countries or West Indian islands, and it was decided to 
watch the situation over a period of years and investigate all suspicious 
reports. Canada and the United States seemed definitely free of in- 
fection. In the absence of any suspicion of the reintroduction of the 
disease, no further investigation of these two countries was made. 
In Mexico, the West Indies, and all but two of the countries of Cen- 
tral America, there have been neither observations nor rumors sug- 
gesting the reappearance of yellow fever. Accordingly, the tenta- 
tive opinion that they are free from yellow fever, as published in 1937, 
seems to have been strengthened by the lapse of time. 


CASES RESEMBLING YELLOW FEVER IN COSTA RICA 


Reports of two fatal illnesses in Costa Rica aroused apprehension 
lest jungle yellow fever might be present there. ‘The first case origi- 
nated early in October 1938 in the town of Parrita at about the mid- 
dle of the southwestern coast of that country, and the patient died 
in a hospital in the town of Puntarenas. Parrita is in a region being 
developed for banana culture by the clearance of virgin jungle, exactly 
the kind of situation which would bring jungle yellow fever to light 
if it were present. The symptoms of the patient included pro- 
nounced jaundice, high fever, slow pulse, albuminuria, and vomiting 
of blood. There was no necropsy. 

The second case was in a man 26 years old. It originated in Sierpe, 
on the seacoast near the southwestern end of the Pacific slope of Costa 
Rica. Here, too, there is a banana development and forest clearance. 
This patient had fever, a pulse rate of 120, albuminuria, acute epigas- 
tric pain, slight jaundice, and persistent vomiting. There were no 
malaria parasites in his blood. The patient died on the fourth day 
after admission to hospital at Puntarenas. At autopsy the stomach 
was found to contain a dark fiuid, and there were hemorrhagic spots 


580 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


inthe mucosa. The liver was yellow and friable and the kidneys large 
and congested. There were no histological examinations. 

No further cases suspicious of yellow fever were reported. It was 
decided to make a thorough study of the situation in the forested 
hinterland of the Golfo Dulce region on the Pacific slope, inland from 
the place in which the second case had occurred. 

The investigation was considered especially necessary as the previous 
investigation in Costa Rica had been confined largely to urban com- 
munities and had not reached the forested regions. In the original 
immunity survey of Costa Rica 190 blood specimens were collected by 
Dr. D. M. Molloy from 1932 to 1934 in the cities of San José, Alajuela, 
Liberia, Puntarenas, and Puerto Limén and sent for examination to 
the laboratories of the International Health Division of The Rocke- 
feller Foundation in New York. The results were included in the re- 
port published by Sawyer, Bauer, and Whitman (1937). There were 
no immunes among the 115 persons bled who were under 20 years of 
age, while there were 18 among the 75 older persons. Among the coun- 
tries of Central America, Costa Rica and Panama stood out in the 
published report as the only ones in which immunes were not found 
in the age group 15 to 19 years. 

Realizing the significance of the reports of suspected yellow fever, 
Dr. Pejia Chavarria, then Secretary of Public Health and Welfare for 
Costa Rica, and Dr. Henry W. Kumm, of the International Health 
Division, made a field investigation in January 1939 and collected 133 
blood specimens from three Boruca Indian communities in the region 
in which the deaths had occurred. These villages were Potrero 
Grande, Boruca, and Palmar. They are located in or near extensive 
tracts of virgin forest at elevations of 800 feet, 2,000 feet, and 100 feet, 
respectively. Specimens were taken only from persons who had al- 
ways lived in the same locality and this restriction prevented obtain- 
ing more than 19 specimens from males over 15 years of age. The in- 
habitants were principally Indian, although some of the blood donors 
were mestizos. Some of the older Indians stated that they had often 
seen severe cases of fever, some of which were fatal in a few days and 
were characterized by jaundice and black vomit. No evidence of ma- 
laria was found in Boruca, but the disease was quite prevalent in Pal- 
mar. As in the case of the other investigations here reported, the 
specimens were sent to the laboratories of the International Health 
Division for examination. No evidence of immunity was obtained in 
any of the tests. The results are included in table 1. The locations 
in which blood specimens were collected are shown in figure 1. 

Although the investigation seemed adequately to rule out the pres- 
ence of yellow fever in the region in which the suspect cases had oc- 
curred, it was deemed advisable to make similar inquiries in other 
representative forested regions of Costa Rica. In the following year 


YELLOW FEVER—SAWYER 581 


Dr. Henry W. Kumm collected 70 blood specimens from the Guatuso 
Indians. They inhabit a forested region about equidistant from the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans near the northern frontier of Costa 
Rict, in the Province of Alajuela. As is seen in table 1 the protection 
test results were entirely negative. Dr. Kumm then completed the 
study by investigating 10 districts of the Talamanca Valley at the 
southeastern end of the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica. The number of 
specimens collected was 193 and the results are classified by age groups 
in table 1. The persons bled had never been out of the area. They 


Lae 
eee em 
. 
% *H. 


if 


COSTA RICA —CENTRAL AMERICA 


showing the forested areas and the localities 
Where blood specimens for protection tests 
against yellow fever virus were obtained. 


FOVEStEC MOTE OS are onion hats aclelteteigicissisiels 


Localities Whete specimens were 
obtained by Du. Molloy in 1932 and 1934..@ 


Localities studied in 1939 and 1940 for 
possible presence of jungle yellow fever... 


Ficuke 1.—Localities in Costa Rica where yellow fever immunity surveys were 
made in 1932-34 and 1939-40, 


were mostly American Indians, although a few were listed as mestizos 
and were only partly of Indian blood. The blood from the Tala- 
manca Indians was devoid of protective power against yellow fever. 

The new evidence, when considered in relation to that which was 
previously collected, strongly suggests that yellow fever has not been 
present in Costa Rica for at least 20 years and that it had not been 
prevalent among the Indians of the forested regions of the interior 
during the lives of the present inhabitants. There is a possibility that 
these regions were never involved. The conclusion published in 1937 
that yellow fever had probably not been present in Costa Rica since 
the epidemic of 1910 seems still to hold good. 


566766—44——38 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


582 


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YELLOW FEVER—SAW YER 


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584 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS IN PANAMA 


In the report by Sawyer, Bauer, and Whitman (1937) it was stated 
that no protective sera had been obtained in Panama from persons 
born after 1905, the date of the last recognized case, but that further 
investigation was in progress in the territory south of the Panama 
Canal Zone, a region which had not then been studied. Through the 
courtesy of Dr. Herbert C. Clark and Dr. Carl M. Johnson, of the 
Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, and Col. George R. Callender, of the 
Army Research Board, Panama Canal Zone, specimens were subse- 
quently obtained from Darién Province, from the San Blas Indians, 
and from Santa Rosa on the Chagres River. The results are shown 
in table 1. Of the 149 children of Darién Province who were tested, 
two gave protective sera and were aged 11 and 12 years. None of the 
56 Chagres River specimens from children protected. Of the six San 
Blas children tested one, aged 9, gave a protective serum. This serum 
was collected in 1936 and the evidence suggests that yellow fever was 
present at least as late as 1927. No conclusion as to the present exist- 
ence of yellow fever there can be drawn except that it has not yet been 
shown to be present, but if yellow fever exists in Central America it 
will probably be found in this region of Panama close to South 
America. A cooperative program including viscerotomy, protection 
tests, and supplementary studies in this region has been arranged 
between the government of Panama and the International Health Di- 
vision, and ultimately it should be known whether the virus is actually 


present. 
JUNGLE FEVER IN SOUTH AMERICA 


The reports of Soper (1937, 1938) on the studies of jungle yellow 
fever in South America leave little to be added here. An important 
recent observation was made by Shannon, Whitman, and Franca 
(1938), who demonstrated that wild-caught forest-inhabiting mos- 
quitoes of Brazil of the species Aedes leucocelaenus and Haemagogus 
capricorni contained yellow fever virus and were capable of infecting 
rhesus monkeys by biting. The epidemiology of jungle yellow fever 
is not yet completely known. The infection is transmitted by some 
vector, or perhaps several, peculiar to the uncleared forest, and it 
is probable that animals other than man and monkeys are involved 
in the transmission cycle. 'The infection may be endemic in the sense 
of being continuously or frequently present in an area, as for example 
in the vicinity of Muzo, Colombia, or it may be sharply epidemic. In 
the latter case, the infection appears at times to invade new territory 
and probably to disappear from previously infected areas. 

Soper (1938) has described a progressive epidemic, or series of sea- 
sonal epidemics, which was first observed in 1934 at Coronel Ponce in 


YELLOW FEVER—SAWYER 585 


Matto Grosso in the center of Brazil, and which has since then pro- 
gressed eastward, then southward, and again eastward in warm-season 
outbreaks through the states of Goiaz, Minas Geraes, Sio Paulo, and 
Rio de Janeiro. This year the epidemic was manifest in Espirito 
Santo, still farther to the east, and cases were found farther to the 
south in the states of Parand,Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. 
It seemed quite probable that in the far south, territory had been in- 
vaded which had previously been entirely free of the disease, for 
yellow fever had not been reported in Rio Grande do Sul during the 
last decade. As the principal epidemic advanced to new territory, the 
area involved during the previous years became almost free of cases, 
probably largely on account of natural immunization of available 
animals and men and partly as the result of preventive vaccination 
of a considerable proportion of the population. 

In Colombia, where jungle yellow fever is being studied by Dr. H. 
H. Smith and his associates in the yellow fever service maintained 
cooperatively by the government and the International Health Divi- 
sion, a shift of the involved territory has also been observed. Dr. 
Smith reports that an epidemic of jungle yellow fever has appeared 
recently in areas to the west of the Magdalena River in the states of 
Caldas and Antioquia, where cases had not previously been observed. 
This outbreak is being studied. At the same time, it is becoming 
apparent that jungle yellow fever has largely disappeared from 
the region around Villavicencio, where there were epidemic conditions 
in 1934 and where a field laboratory has been built to study the 
disease. Cases were diagnosed in the general region of Villavicencio 
each year from 1934 to 1938, but in spite of careful observations no case 
of yellow fever has been found in that area since August 1938. Even 
animals with protective sera are being found less frequently in this 
region than formerly, and studies with sentinel animals exposed in 
the jungle, and protection tests on young wild animals have led to 
the belief that active virus is not now present in the area. 


THE USE OF VACCINATION IN PREVENTING THE SPREAD 
OF YELLOW FEVER 


The present yellow fever situation on which control measures must 
be based may be briefly summarized. There appears to be no yellow 
fever outside South America, unless possibly close to South America 
in Panama. There have been no recognized urban outbreaks of 
aegypti-transmitted yellow fever in South America for several years. 
Jungle yellow fever occurs continuously in endemic form or as wan- 
dering epidemics in a vast area involving the greater part of the 
Amazon watershed and extending into the interior of Colombia and 
the hinterland of other countries. 


086 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


The first obvious control measure has already been mentioned. 
Cities in South America or elsewhere which are threatened with inva- 
sion by yellow fever from the jungle areas should keep themselves 
noninfectible by the well-known methods of aegypti control. There 
still remains to be considered the more direct control of jungle yellow 
fever itself. 

Jungle yellow fever is very widely distributed in sparsely inhabited 
regions and is seldom revealed except when a considerable number of 
susceptible persons are present and become infected. Aedes aegypti 
control is inapplicable because that mosquito is not involved. The 
suppression of other vectors is at present impracticable because it 
is not known what insects play the dominant role in transmission, 
and it seems improbable that thorough and widespread insect control 
will be possible in the jungle areas. Extermination of the infection 
is obviously impossible at present. The prevention of disease in hu- 
man beings through widespread vaccination becomes our only prac- 
tical means of keeping the people of the region noninfectible. 

Large-scale yellow fever vaccination has been applied mostly to 
stop an existing epidemic or immunize against an expected one. The 
effective use of vaccination on a large scale in Brazil for such pur- 
poses has been described by Soper and Smith (1938b). In Colombia, 
in the absence of such large sweeping epidemics, much thought is 
being given to the immunization of selected communities for the pur- 
pose of preventing the possible future spread of nearby jungle yellow 
fever through them. At the same time, vaccination is being made 
available to the people, usually relatively few in number, under actual 
exposure in the jungle areas. Even this is an important measure 
to prevent the spread of yellow fever, for it is the nonimmune work- 
ing in the jungle who will become infected and bring yellow fever 
into the towns and cities. The need is for the intelligent mapping 
of the campaign against yellow fever, using both aegypti control in 
the cities and vaccination at strategic points, which are obviously our 
most effective present safeguards against surprise invasion of our 
cities and our commerce by yellow fever. 

To use vaccination effectively and on a large scale it is necessary 
to have available a vaccine which is both safe and effective. The 
vaccine in use in the Americas is known as 17D. Its safety and 
efficiency have been up to expectations, as is shown by the report of 
Soper and Smith (1938b), but experience has shown that eternal vigi- 
lance will be needed to keep this living vaccine at a low level of viru- 
lence and free from contaminating viruses and at the same time to 
avoid any fall in immunizing power. 

Much has been done to improve the vaccine since Sawyer, Kitchen, 
and Lloyd (1932) began vaccinating human beings effectively with 


YELLOW FEVER—SAWYER 587 


yellow fever virus adapted to mice and human immune serum. The 
original method could be used only on a small scale on account of 
the difficulties of obtaining enough of the immune serum. Through 
years of patient research the virulent Asibi strain was so modified 
through tissue culture by Lloyd, Theiler, and Ricci (1936) and Theiler 
and Smith (1937) that its lowered virulence made possible its use 
without serum. At the same time, the use of chick embryo tissues in 
place of the brains of living mice in producing the vaccine reduced the 
risk of the introduction of unknown pathogenic viruses, thus increas- 
ing the element of safety. After the experience of Findlay and Mac- 
Callum (1937) and Soper and Smith (1938a) with delayed infections 
characterized by jaundice after yellow fever vaccination with tissue 
culture material, used in the latter case along with hyperimmune 
serum, the possibility of the introduction of an unknown virus into the 
vaccine from the blood of apparently healthy human donors became a 
matter of concern. As a result, human serum used in the tissue cul- 
tures is now being inactivated with heat.2 Any reports of jaundice 
or other symptoms following vaccination are being carefully investi- 
gated. One such report in 1939 is still under study in Brazil to find 
out its possible relationship to the vaccine. With the present pre- 
cautions the tissue culture vaccine 17D would seem to have as high a 
degree of safety for the vaccinated person as could be expected of a 
biological product containing a living virus. That the infection is 
not likely to be spread from vaccinated persons to others through the 
medium of mosquitoes and finally to revert to a more virulent form 
has been shown by the studies of Roubaud and his associates (1937) 
and Whitman (1939). 

As to the effectiveness of the vaccine made from strain 17D, there 
has been much recent evidence. Reports by Smith, Penna, and 
Paoliello (1938) and by Soper and Smith (1938b) showed a high 
percentage of immunes among vaccinated persons whose blood was 
afterward tested by the mouse-protection test. At the end of 1938 
and early in 1939, however, the results with certain lots of vaccine 
were not so happy, as reported by Soper, Smith, and Penna (1940). 
While 90 percent of persons tested after vaccination earlier in 1938 
had developed protective antibodies in their blood, and field experience 
in the presence of epidemics had suggested that vaccinated groups 
were protected against natural infection as early as 1 week after 
the inoculation, a considerable number of persons vaccinated at the 
time mentioned and later exposed to an anticipated epidemic developed 
yellow fever. Among 186,000 persons vaccinated with 15 different 
lots of vaccine, there were 56 cases and 14 deaths from 7 days to 14 

2 Subsequent to the presentation of this paper there has been further observation of 


jaundice after vaccination against yellow fever, and methods have been perfected and 
adopted for completely omitting normal human serum in manufacture. 


588 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


months after vaccination. Groups vaccinated with certain lots of 
vaccine showed absence of demonstrable protective antibodies in from 
50 to 80 percent of the cases. Investigation showed that the ineffective 
lots of vaccine contained living virus which had undergone over 309 
passages in tissue culture, while the virus previously used so success- 
fully had been passaged only from 229 to 255 times. It was necessary 
to test and revaccinate many persons for their protection. There 
seemed to have been a qualitative change in the virus which resulted 
in a drop in its antigenicity. Whether this was directly due to an 
excessive number of passages is being subjected to experimental test 
in Colombia and the International Health Division Laboratories in 
New York, as well as in Brazil. The return to lower passage material 
has again brought satisfactory results. To prevent the recurrence 
of this episode, new lots of vaccine in Brazil are being used first in 
vaccinating small groups of persons whose serum must pass a rigid 
test for protective antibodies before the lot is sent into the field for use. 

In simplest terms, the outstanding features of the yellow fever 
situation in the Americas are: (1) absence of definite outbreaks of 
urban, aegypii-transmitted yellow fever anywhere; (2) absence of 
recognized yellow fever of any transmission type outside of South 
America; (3) jungle-transmitted yellow fever, endemic and as migrat- 
ing epidemics, in wide areas of the interior of South America; 
(4) effective methods for keeping cities noninfectible through aegypti 
control; and (5) a safe and effective way to immunize against yellow 
fever and prevent its spread from the jungle to infectible cities. 


LITERATURE CITED 


FInpDLAy, G. M., and MAcCaAtium, F. O. 

1937. Note on acute hepatitis and yellow fever immunization. Trans. Roy. 

Soc. Trop. Med. and Hyg., vol. 31, p. 297. 
LioyD, W., THEILER, M., and Ricct, N. I. 

1936. Modification of the virulence of yellow fever virus by cultivation in 
tissues in vitro. Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. and Hyg., vol. 29, 
p. 481. 

RovuBAwD, H., STEFANOPOULO, G. J., and FINDLAY, G. M. 
1937. Essais de transmission par les stégomyies du virus amaril de cultures 
en tissu embryonnaire. Bull. Soc. Path. Txot., vol. 30, p. 581. 
SAWYER, W. A. 
1939. Yellow fever. Oxford Medicine, vol. 5, p. 7381. 
Sawyer, W. A., Bauer, J. H., and WHITMAN, L. 

1987. The distribution of yellow fever immunity in North America, Central 
America, the West Indies, Europe, Asia, and Australia, with special 
reference to the specificity of the protection test. Amer. Journ. 
Trop. Med., vol. 17, p. 187. 

Sawyer, W. A., KITCHEN, S. F., and Lioyp, W. 

1932. Vaccination against yellow fever with immune serum and virus fixed 

for mice. Journ. Exp. Med., vol. 55, p. 945. 


YELLOW FEVER—SAWYER 589 


SHANNON, R. C., WHITMAN, L., and Franca, M. 
1938. Yellow fever virus in jungle mosquitoes. Science, vol. 88, p. 110. 
SmirH, H. H., Penna, H. A., and PAOLieLxo, A. 
1938. Yellow fever vaccination with cultured virus (17D) without immune 
serum. Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 18, p. 437. 
Soper, F. L. 
1987a. The geographical distribution of immunity to yellow fever in man 
in South America. Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 17, p. 457. 
1937b. Present-day methods for the study and control of yellow fever. 
Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 17, p. 655. 
1938. Yellow fever: The present situation (October, 1938) with special 
reference to South America. Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. and 
Hyg., vol. 32, p. 297. 
Soprr, F. L., Penna, H., Carposo, H., Serarim, J., Jr., FRopisHeR, M., Jr., and 
PINHEIRO, J. 
1933. Yellow fever without Aédes aegypti. Study of rural epidemic in the 
Valle do Chanaan, Espirito Santo, Brazil, 1932. Amer. Journ. 
Hyg., vol. 18, p. 555. 
Soper, F. L., and Smiru, H. H. 
1938a. Yellow fever vaccination with cultivated virus and immune and 
hyperimmune serum. Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 18, p. 111. 
1938b. Vaccination with virus 17D in the control of jungle yellow fever in 
Brazil. Trans. Third Int. Congr. Trop. Med. and Malaria, vol. 1, 
p. 295. 
Soprr, F. L., Smiru, H. H., and PENNA, H. 
1940. Yellow fever vaccination: field results as measured by the mouse 
protection test and epidemiological observations. Proc. Third Int. 
Congr. for Microbiol., Sept. 2 to 9, 1939, p. 351. 
THEILER, M., and SmiTH, H. H. 
1937. The effect of prolonged cultivation in vitro upon the pathogenicity of 
yellow fever virus. Journ. Exp. Med., vol. 65, p. 767. 
Watcort, A. M., Cruz, H., PAOLIELLO, A., and SERAFIM, J., Jr. 
1937. An epidemic of urban yellow fever which originated from a case con- 
tracted in the jungle. Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 17, p. 677. 
WHITMAN, L. 
1939. Failure of Aédes aegypti to transmit yellow fever cultured virus 
(17D). Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 19, p. 19. 
Wurman, L., and ANTUNES, P. C. A. 
19388. The transmission of two strains of jungle yellow fever virus by 
Aédes aegypti. Amer. Journ. Trop. Med., vol. 18, p. 135. 


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SOME FOOD PROBLEMS IN WARTIME? 


By Grorcr R. CowGiLi 
Yale University 


As a result of the war, communities all over the Nation are finding 
their young men in the armed forces serving as representatives in 
almost every part of the world. Consider, for example, a group of 
men from your own community. One of them may be in an artillery 
unit hidden in the jungles bounding the Panama Canal. Another 
may be doing guard duty in Iceland. A third “joined the marines” 
to see action, and has seen it in the Solomon Islands of the South 
Pacific. A fourth received training as a mechanic for servicing air- 
planes and eventually found himself in an air squadron suddenly 
assigned to duty in North Africa. 

Before the war, all these boys were exposed to a reasonably uniform 
set of influences, social, climatic, and otherwise. Their habits of eat- 
ing are a reflection of family training, racial background, the kinds 
of foods readily available in their community, and related factors. 
Now that they are in the service, will their diet be quite different from 
that to which they have been accustomed? Will it vary according 
to the part of the world in which they are serving? These are some 
of the questions that will occur to their parents and friends. 

The planned feeding of our armed forces today affords a marked 
contrast to that of the days of 1914-18. Between 1900 and about 1910 
it was considered that any combination of foods that furnished enough 
energy, protein, certain mineral nutrients like calcium for the bones, 
and iron for the blood would meet the requirements of good nutrition. 
Today if a student of this science attempts to list individually all of 
the specific factors known to be important for nourishing the body, he 
must mention approximately 40 items, the exact number depending 
upon whether certain claims for existence of new vitamins are te be 
regarded as acceptable or not. We are much closer now than our 
predecessors ever were to being able to write a complete list of 
factors required. A rough classification of them would be as follows: 
(a) food energy, measured in calories; (6) protein; (¢c) mineral 

1Reprinted by permission from the Yale Review, Winter, 1943. Copyright, Yale Uni- 


versity Press. 


591 


592 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


nutrients; and (d) vitamins. In addition to knowing that these many 
factors are necessary, we also have at hand some information bearing 
on the question of how much food the average person needs, and the 
factors that may change that requirement. Although at the present 
time we do not know all we should like to know about the requirements 
of certain dietary essentials, such as vitamins B, and B,, we already 
‘have a body of knowledge sufficiently large to warrant interesting 
applications not merely to a civilian peace-time population but an ever- 
growing armed force as well. All this information has been used in 
planning the commissary of our armed forces. In other words, the 
modern science of nutrition enables us to deal with this new world- 
wide food problem in far more effective fashion than was ever before 
possible. 

For about 10 years, the Chicago Quartermaster Depot of the United 
States Army has maintained what is called the Subsistence Research 
Laboratory devoted to the application of this modern knowledge in 
the practical solution of army food problems. The older standard 
rations have been examined in the light of the new developments and 
appropriate changes made. Numerous new rations designed to fit 
special situations in the field have been devised. The question 
whether the good standard army-post ration in common use in this 
country, known to contain ample supplies of vitamins and other 
essential factors, would be improved by supplementation with vitamin 
tablets has been put to scientific test with soldiers under properly 
controlled experimental conditions. The answer to this particular 
question proves to be negative. It does not necessarily follow from 
this that the provision of an unusual and extra supply of one or more 
vitamins to soldiers never serves any useful purpose. As yet too few 
of the special work situations of interest have really been investigated 
from this point of view. In another study, carried out in a university 
laboratory, where men subjected themselves to extreme muscular work 
to the point of exhaustion, it was found that their endurance of, and 
ease of recovery from, the severe strain was related to their receiving 
daily a liberal supply of a natural source of the vitamin B complex 
(such as dried yeast) ; daily administration of a supply of vitamin B, 
alone was not as effective. In still another study, evidence has been 
obtained that two of the most recently discovered members of the 
vitamin B complex are of some importance in relation to muscular 
fatigue and recovery from vigorous exercise. Numerous investiga- 
tions relating to this general problem are being carried on in the 
laboratories of the country as part of our research contribution to 
winning the war. 

Earlier in this article the factors important in nutrition were 
classified. The first one to be mentioned was energy. The need for 


FOOD PROBLEMS IN WARTIME—COWGILL 593 


this factor has long been known. It was the first to receive thorough 
scientific investigation. At the risk of seeming to emphasize the 
obvious, I must summarize briefly important facts centering around 
food energy. Failure to “eat sufficient calories” results in loss of 
body weight because the energy cost of living cannot be dodged, and 
therefore the body consumes its own tissues in order to secure the 
needed energy. Conscious and planned reduction in consumption of 
calories as a means of reducing weight is the scientific basis for the 
so-called Hollywood diet by which one “eats to get thin.” The amount 
of energy required by a normal individual is related to his age, sex, 
body size, and amount of muscular exercise, this last named being 
most variable and perhaps the most significant of all the factors listed. 

The layman frequently asks whether mental effort or “strain” has 
an energy cost. In discussing this topic, one must distinguish 
between the energy cost of the special activity of brain cells associated 
with intense cerebration and the energy demands due to emotional 
reactions which involve greater muscular activity. It has proved 
impossible to measure the energy cost of the mental effort involved in 
studying for an examination, for example; it doubtless exists but is 
so small a fraction of the total energy exchange of the body that it 
cannot be measured by the methods used hitherto. On the other hand, 
emotional reaction or “strain” that brings about greater muscular 
activity, more intense application to a task requiring muscular effort 
or activity of a different sort, is thereby associated with a greater 
energy exchange; in this situation it is obvious that the energy cost 
being measured is quite definitely related to greater activity of the 
muscles, 

Measurements have been made of the energy costs of various occu- 
pations, and the results have constituted the basis of numerous tables 
published in standard texts. Of course, the energy cost of the soldier’s 
life needs investigating, and such studies have in fact been made. 
The results of these investigations have been utilized in the formula- 
tion of special rations intended for use in special situations. 

In these days of modern mechanized warfare, the troops may 
move very fast, and it is not always practical for the mess sergeant 
and cook to set up the old-style traveling kitchen. A food that is 
concentrated, readily digested, nutritionally complete, easily eaten, 
and packaged in a way that permits rough handling in the field, is 
the ideal aimed at for this warfare. Such a ration has been devised. 
It has been tested on the members of the Subsistence Research Labora- 
tory and also in the field, in mountainous country and in the desert, 
and it has been judged satisfactory. For example, Field Ration K 
is a three-meal package of concentrated food furnishing 8,726 calories 
and packed in a heat-and-cold-proof box, 6 by 6 by 4 inches. The 


594 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


breakfast package furnishes enriched biscuits, compressed graham 
crackers, veal, a fruit bar, malted milk dextrose tablets, soluble coffee, 
sugar, chewing gum, and four cigarettes. The contents of the dinner 
package are much the same with the addition of powdered bouillon 
but without coffee or fruit bar. For supper the allowance is biscuits, 
cheese, chocolate bar, fruit-juice powder, sugar, chewing gum, and 
cigarettes. Gum is included because its chewing promotes the flow 
of saliva, thus keeping the lining of the mouth moist, and this seems 
to reduce the consumption of water. In field trials of the rations, 
cigarettes were found to have value in promoting morale. 

People frequently ask the professional nutritionist whether armed 
forces fighting in various parts of the world have different food re- 
quirements according to the climate in which they find themselves, or 
to other factors peculiar to their respective regions. Must the soldier 
in Iceland be fed differently from his comrade in Morocco? 

The observation that marked differences in food habits characterize 
the inhabitants of different parts of the globe may suggest to some 
laymen that the nutritive needs of these widely distributed people are 
correspondingly different, and, therefore, in the feeding of our armed 
forces, differences in requirements seemingly related to regions should 
be considered. Students of nutrition agree that such an interpreta- 
tion of the fact of variety in food habits is erroneous. The kinds of 
foods eaten by any group of people constitute a reflection of economic 
factors, such as availability and relative cost, and socioreligious fac- 
tors involving established customs, taboos, religious training, and the 
like. Naturally, foods that are readily produced in a given area will 
predominate in the dietaries of the inhabitants of those areas over 
foods that must be imported. 

If differences in food habits do not mean differences in fundamental 
nutritive requirements of different places, it follows that a basic 
ration, with perhaps minor modifications, could serve for all troops 
regardless of where they are. All soldiers will need enough calories 
to meet the energy costs of their respective activities. The soldier 
in Iceland will have to face the problem of greater heat loss to the en- 
vironment and will solve this very largely through the use of warmer 
clothing and heated quarters. The soldier in Libya will dress so as 
to facilitate loss of body heat to environment. It is quite possible 
that the soldier in Iceland will eat a few more calories daily than his 
comrade in Libya depending upon the severity of the cold weather 
and the care taken to conserve heat through proper clothing. 

The soldier in Libya, and particularly his comrades in the humid 
Tropics, will have another problem to face: that due to the greater 
sweating caused by the warmer climates. It is known that workmen 
in steel mills and other industrial plants whose activities result in 


FOOD PROBLEMS IN WARTIME—COWGILL 595 


profuse sweating may lose so much salt through the sweat as to de- 
velop muscle cramps and pains; the administration of tablets of table 
salt has been found to be the remedy here, and has become an estab- 
lished practice in industrial medicine. Recently it has been learned 
that appreciable.amounts of various water-soluble vitamins may also 
be lost from the body by way of sweat. Just how significant this loss 
can be, remains to be determined by research directed to this specific 
end. For the present any bearing that this fact may have on the 
soldier’s need for vitamins can doubtless be met by having the basic 
ration contain amounts of these factors that are really liberal and 
appreciably greater than the known minima. 

Conditions in the Tropics have played an interesting role in deter- 
mining some of the specifications of certain emergency rations, such 
as, for example, an experimental chocolate bar designed to be carried 
in the soldier’s shirt pocket, and to be eaten only as a last resort when 
separated from the troop unit. The size of the bar was determined 
by the dimensions of the shirt pocket. One specification was that the 
bar remain solid at 120° F., so that the bar would not melt in the 
pocket under tropical conditions and thus become impossible to eat. 
When a committee of scientific advisers sampled numerous bars sub- 
mitted in response to the advertised specifications, some of the mem- 
bers rated certain bars unfavorably on the ground of poorer taste, and 
were surprised to learn from the Quartermaster representative that 
a delectable bar was not desired because it was intended to serve as 
an emergency ration; if its taste was too good, it would be eaten too 
soon and thus be unavailable when the emergency finally occurred. 

The selection of foods for aviators is not without its special problems. 
One that might be mentioned here is the advisability of avoiding foods 
that readily produce gas. When the pilot and his crew rise to high 
altitudes, gases expand in corresponding degree; if much gas is present 
in the alimentary tract, its expansion can cause considerable discom- 
fort. 

Because we as a nation have been peace-loving, and have not over 
a period of years planned intensively for the waging of offensive 
war, the food problems mentioned thus far have received our concen- 
trated attention only comparatively recently. The Axis nations, par- 
ticularly Germany and Japan, went into the present war with the 
soldier relatively well equipped for blitz tactics, jungle fighting, and 
the like. The individual Japanese soldier carries a remarkable equip- 
ment suited for penetration of the jungle. As far as our knowledge 
goes, this equipment includes rice and certain other dry foods valu- 
able in supplementing rice with the nutritive factors it lacks. 

For some years, Dr. T. Saiki, Director of the Imperial Institute of 
Nutrition in Tokyo, concentrated on the problem of finding new but 


596 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


cheap food resources with which to feed the Japanese masses who 
are extremely poor. Into various sections of the country went young 
students and research workers from Saiki’s laboratory to study the 
food values of literally everything edible in those areas, including 
weeds, numerous insects, and other forms of life hitherto unused as 
human food. One result of the knowledge thus gained was that 
nutritionally adequate diets for the masses could be secured for a cost 
as low as 5 cents a day. 

As a result of the war, the shipment of silk to this country was 
stopped. Other uses for the silkworm have been found however. 
Recently it was learned that the silkworm cocoon contains a significant 
amount of vitamin B,. This is now being extracted and used as a food. 
There can be no doubt that the information gained through Dr. Saiki’s 
activities is now being applied by the Japanese militarists in provid- 
ing the soldiers and sailors with the food needed for them to carry on. 
Because the Japanese masses have long been accustomed to simple and 
cheap fare, it is probably relatively easy for the Japanese soldier to 
adjust to his special field rations. 

The bulk of a ration cannot be reduced below a certain amount if a 
desired number of calories is to be furnished. This point is not 
always appreciated by the layman. Food energy is derived from 
protein, carbohydrate, and fat, the first two of which yield 4 calories 
per gram in contrast to fat which furnishes 9 calories per gram. The 
“average man” weighs 154 pounds (70 kilograms) and requires 3,000 
calories per day. To secure this number of calories from the most 
concentrated source available—fat—333 grams (roughly three-quar- 
ters of a pound) are required. However, man develops ketosis when 
fat furnishes more than about one-half of the energy. Calories from 
carbohydrate are required to prevent this. Therefore the 333 grams 
of fat must be diluted with some carbohydrate; still more dilution is 
necessary in order to secure needed protein, mineral nutrients, and 
vitamins. 

This question of bulk has assumed great importance recently. In 
natural foods, the various dietary factors may be greatly diluted with 
water. Seeds like the cereal grains and legumes, and special products 
made from them, like baked goods, are concentrated foods which are 
low in water content in contrast to muscle tissue, for example, which 
has from 70 to 80 percent water, and a food like canned tomatoes 
which contain over 95 percent water. In the early days of its work 
in this country, the British Food Commission bought large quantities 
of water-rich foods like canned tomatoes for shipment to England. 
This meant using a large part of the available space for shipping the 
water contained in these foods. As a result of the sinking of so many 
ships, it has become necessary to make the best possible use of all avail- 


FOOD PROBLEMS IN WARTIME—COWGILL 597 


able shipping space. Elimination of the water present in many foods 
by commercial dehydration processes has thus assumed tremendous 
importance. 

The dehydrated-food industry is expanding at a most rapid rate. 
This expansion has been so great and is so important that the Govern- 
ment has established a school at which interested industrialists may 
learn the dehydration processes that have been perfected and how a 
given industrial plant may therefore be converted to the dehydration 
of one or more foods. 

Some idea of what the saving in shipping space can be as a result 
of dehydration can be gained from the following: A ship’s ton of 
canned boiled potato furnishes only 920 pounds of potato. The same 
ship’s ton of dehydrated potato, when reconstituted by the addition 
of water, supplies 3,980 pounds of this vegetable. Dehydrated foods 
as prepared for shipment take, on an average, only about one-sixth 
the cargo space required for shipments in nondehydrated or natural 
form. Another fact of particular interest is that many dehydrated 
foods, dry skim milk and eggs, for example, can be packed in nonmetal 
containers thus saving tin, the supply of which is dangerously low. 

Over a period of years, many important foods have proved to be 
very difficult to dehydrate satisfactorily; recently, as a result of 
intensive experimentation, they have yielded to the laboratory in this 
respect, and can now be used not only in economical shipments abroad’ 
as food for civilian populations but as ingredients of concentrated 
rations for the armed forces. Meat is a good example of this. Dried 
soup stocks of known nutritive value have also been made from which 
tasty soups may be prepared by the mere addition of water. One 
food concern recently announced that it had finally succeeded, after 
much laboratory experimentation, in drying ham-and-eggs. With 
such a product it becomes possible to provide the American soldier 
with this traditional reminder of breakfast at home regardless of 
where he may happen to be. 

In our American approach to the food problem we have not gone 
so far in developing entirely new food resources as Saiki has done in 
Japan. However, a survey has revealed that there are many valuable 
foods in this country not now being used in the quantities that their 
nutritive values warrant. A few examples are skim milk powder, 
peanut meal, products of the soybean, pig liver, and dried yeast. The 
oil of the peanut is squeezed out and used in soap making, and the 
manufacture of munitions and other products; the meal residue, 
valuable as a source of protein and certain vitamins, could well be 
used more as a food by man. It has already proved possible to make 
a tasty bread containing as much as 20 percent peanut flour. Skim 
milk powder is an especially valuable product that is used to some 

566766—44—-39 


598 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1943 


extent as an ingredient in making certain human foods but to a much 
greater extent as a component of feed for livestock. Greater use of 
it by our housewives would improve significantly the nutrition of our 
people. In certain industries devoted to the production of special 
substances from animal tissues, such as antianemic principle from 
liver and insulin from pancreas, the tissue residues remaining from 
such processing have been largely regarded as almost worthless. Re- 
cent tests on animals of these materials for their nutritive value have 
revealed qualities quite unsuspected and such as to give them high 
ratings as foods. The successful introduction into our American 
dietaries of these various valuable but at present little-used foods 
will doubtless require education of the consumer concerning relative 
food values and the role that these unappreciated foods may play in 
meeting nutritive needs. Even if such an educational campaign 
should prove only moderately successful in the so-called pellagra areas 
of the South, for example, this would be significant in combating the 
pellagra problem. 

Many of these valuable but little-used foods are now being utilized 
in special army rations, dried soup stocks, and the like, and are thus 
finding their way into the feeding of the armed forces as well as the 
war-torn populations reached by the International Red Cross. If 
such products prove successful, it is not unreasonable to suppose that 
they will find a place in the national dietary after the war in serious 
competition with the present established staples. No one can really 
say what the future holds in store for us in this field. This much is 
certain: the war has precipitated a great deal of valuable research 
in the development of new foods. 

It is to be expected that we shall do all that is possible to feed our 
armed forces scientifically wherever they may be placed in this global 
war. On the home front, we have the problem of producing enough of 
the various basic food supplies to meet the need not only of the armed 
forces but our home population and that of the Allied nations. It does 
not suffice merely to produce these foods; when they are to be shipped 
around the world, they must be concentrated and otherwise processed 
so as to enable such shipment to be made with the minimum required 
space. Some foods like skim milk powder and cheese are both highly 
concentrated and of high nutritive value, and thus have a superior 
rating in relation to this particular situation. 

We may, therefore, receive from time to time from our Secretary 
of Agriculture and other responsible officials recommendations that 
we on the home front eat less of certain foods and more of others, in 
order to release particular foods for shipment abroad. Certain foods 
are now being rationed for various reasons, and we may expect many 
others to be sooner or later. The consumer should welcome this pro- 


FOOD PROBLEMS IN WARTIME—COWGILL 599 


cedure as an indication of careful planning toward solution of the basic 
problem. 

It seems obvious that a successful attack on this phase of our general 
problem involves the education of every citizen in the principles of 
nutrition and dietetics—how to select the good diet, how to think prac- 
tically of food energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins in terms of 
common foods, classes of foods from which substitutes may be selected 
when we are told to conserve some foods, how to “pack a lunch a man 
can work on,” and kindred topics. A program for accomplishing this 
has been formulated. Through the nutrition division of the Office of 
Defense Health and Welfare Services in Washington a national nutri- 
tion program has been organized that has in it a place for everybody— 
food producer, wholesaler, retailer, consumer, advertiser, and all the 
agencies for influencing public opinion. State and local nutrition 
committees have been established throughout the nation. Through 
these committees and the Red Cross, nutrition classes have been or- 
ganized in such a way as to touch nearly every home in the land. Today 
every citizen has ample opportunity to learn how, through selection 
of food, he can in simple fashion make a very important contribution 
and adjustment to this problem of properly utilizing our food resources 
in order to win the war. 


REFERENCES 


Those who wish to read further on this subject will find much of interest in 
the following recent publications: 
Brack, J. D., and COLLABORATORS. 
1943. Nutrition and food supply: the war and after. Ann. Amer. Acad. 
Polit. and Soe. Sci., vol. 225, January. 
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY. 
1942. A series of eleven lectures delivered in the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture Auditorium, Washington, D. C., March 11-15, 1942. 
Publ. of Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services. 
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE, MONTREAL, CANADA. 
1942. Food control in Great Britain. Studies and Reports, ser. B. (eco- 
nomic conditions), No. 35, March. 


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INDEX 


A 
Page 
Abbot, Charles G., Secretary of the Institution______- vii, xi, 10, 12, 25, 76, 99 
Administrative assistant to the Secretary (Harry W. Dorsey) cB See Pe he vii 
PMARMUMISyrebIVeLs ait 2— fo a Be ye ey ee ae ee x 
Nia en Gash Loar zH bh BS Se Sha ae PW, Spe Sh eR RENE. eer) Bee eet: xi, 76 
ANTS TRESS Np LT hs eR RR aa ga i fh Se ge ah ame ait | fie 5 viii 
Arab village community of the Middle East, The (Tannous)-_---------- 523 
Areal and temporal aspects of aboriginal South American culture (Cooper). 429 
PEnNIStrOne heen (une sea asia, StOLeDONSe) a5 a2) Sees oo ae oe ee ee 135 
Artists for Victory, [Cee aii rey eee ean eee em YS. RNs 07 pone 2), ae ie Sa aen 30 
Assistant Secretary of the Institution (Alexander Wetmore) -_-_--------- vii, 24 
Associate Director of the National Museum (John E. Graf)___-___----_-- vil 
NSO YS THAN LO) OCTET A HEH LO ey eee I eee y= xi, 9, 75 
DWivisionsor Astrophysical esearch. ese...) (us eee 75 
Divisionlomhadiationsand Organismst-yass 204 2 Ae ee ee 75 
Bite GRoOlsenustOLriGs sa. eee eee el eee elk cdc ee er 9, 75 
Rersomnme lees saa ore eee eye ed he eae pe vg Lee BI. Ee eS 76 
EOL Gy ee ee ee oe eee a te ts She eer gs ES ae 75 
Sie ae een Rr ieee Oe eas MAS eh a he i 
Attorney General (Francis Biddle, member of the Institution)__.-------- vii 
PS mp AITNT Gt Vetere epee ys a ee eee Uk SAL er i Oe ly viii 
B 

Barkley, Alben W. (regent of the Institution)-_....-._-_-.-------------- vii, 10 
IBSURN CS oie eater etek Ree Ort Re ree SLE EL Te Ga RS We Che eae er viii 
Bamtac kee alles ees ee a el Ba ead ier A ek On ee Vili, 4x 
Bassler, R. ch oi eae earatri ans SN ete) eee a 1x 
Pa CRON GM Sporemtan £ cane eer sete SL Qo he aa i es oS ae eee ix 
edo miual Ohana Sree bese Saeed hai deel ye Ra Oke eee 4,51 
Belin, Ferdinand Lammot, Vice President, National Gallery of Art__ x, 25, 26, 34 
Belote, eDylipeeease puppeteer ll PAE ae Se Ee es ails det. een ea ix 
IBembeArbinun © aes ef Sey hated daa shes aif cally chia tg bees ope k SRE viii 
Biddle, Francis, Attorney General (member of the Institution) -_-------- vii 
Biological effects of solar radiation, Some (O’Brien)____---------------- 109 

Bishop, Carl Whiting (Origin of Far Eastern civilizations: A brief hand- 

SOO eae uate ek ey yam 2 caus Sete Sc lL ula a 463 
Elerelawrel lenimhvey Ha miuupeninene amet aim eres ie can te Be i ty Cale CRs ate AR vili 
Bonlem@harlesetimmsn mre mime i Se nih ee Oe ie CNA ie en eh Lapel an Aa 6, 35 
JEXGTS, ANIC rea ssh ate & eel a AN re een Mpeteeneeel cr, Sane ie: «SiMe ter 7s PaO i ee steals are SU ix 
BRSVR PAY rel) a ee aia aE Pee DORR) Piece Se ERS ix 
IESTeOvysT ane Ler eee cee Lk oa ae ee LE Sloe 9) Se, viii 
Bruce, David K. E., President, National Gallery of Art._--_--------- x, 25, 
RuRperp EDs se 8 oe ws ee a esses sewe eh aces Wee 
Biraasman (hss th pte fhe ru PE eb RL Mg Sel SE OE, SU ae viii 
Bush, Vannevar (regent of the Institution)___.____-_------------ vii, 10, 95 

C 
Cairns, Huntington, Secretary-Treasurer and General Counsel National 

OVC) SST Yaa ee a he a OA eae Lap PeMr Co ROE AUMOUMIDS. Ly 2 x, 25 
Cannon, Clarence (regent of the Institution) ._-.-.---------------- vii, 10, 95 
Co THERE 118 (ess Se ana aS ROY cae PR TNR URE NDI 7 DEMONTE ms Cote Tsu ix 
(Carmien ON iy Awe em woe ee Se ee ee eer abe a te 1 il 
Wasseuye ecw Gren. ee es a SR Se et lai = a ean aoa be x, 55 


602 INDEX 


Page 
Chancellor of the Institution (Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United 
PtRTES) 2 sho Lit IES a See pete aoe ke ce re vii, 10 
Ghapin) "Hidward Ass i528 20 NS ie pata in Tok te BE) hs 6 ee eee viii 
Whee AGNES See Se es ee ee I Le a os ee i i viii 
Chemotherapeutic agents from microbes (Weintraub) __________________ 545 
Chief Justice of the United States (Harlan F. Stone, Chancellor of the 
TRS CLOUT CL) se eee Mo DDE LUE Ee Nes 21 ea vii, x, 10, 25 
Claeke Avistim Es. (iia AGS SNS ee jo peeeinrimnenararemeeireh ute PR Lee rye eae oe viii 
Clark, Bennett Champ (regent of the Institution) ____________________- vii, 10 
Clark Weilas he librarian’of:the Institmtione = = oak ee ee 2 WiIS 
Cork Sadie [spr Ge BS 8 ee eed ean a bela SAN aCe EAL 2 Le Ny er al 
Clark frobert- Oterlintg ~~... SONU GASC) OT AG) VERS AOOS tt ESD ix 
Cochran; Dorisy Mi-LLoeiNe_ 2. SAAS TE ID NES OS SUPREMO vili 
(Dangerous reptiles) =<s s22eusesees eet ded esses = ee Ee 275 
Cole? William: P. Jr:-(regent of the Institution). 52s 55.2.2 55)) eee 10 
Collins, H. B., Iga i (Re OPE WIEN yao CB TPEE SL) Si xo; fs 
Commerford, 0 Hie: = PAREN AO a RENO BE UN OE PO WT EUS ROR SS 
Compton, Arthur H. (fegen't ‘6F*the Institution) 2!) 2) 2k PSO ONG vii, 10 
Congdon, Charles Pns--2se2==+ =4 +. Pa Bee hoe at} ee 52 
Conger; Paul-S: 2s 22s) 2a kes 23 cakes Ls pee en oe ete TE COEMONOE CIOS viii 
Contours of culture in Indonesia (Kennedy) ___-_..-..__-___-2-_-__ - 513 
Cook, OF soo ee = At ST SEE Oe A OUREE YS GERD 3) DIR ie viii 
(Natural rubber)j2 045 seu Jess - aaa ea ees eee CURRY ONO TOR 363 
Cooper; Gustav: Aux j22+42seees se+ owe ee DUID El ABOIR VEO? 10) OTE ix, 21 
Cooper, John M. (Areal and temporal aspects of aboriginal South Ameri- 
can culture). 2h 222 See ee) ae eo elo Spee 429 
Cowgill, George R. (Some food problems in wartime)_________---_-_-- 591 
Cox, Edward E. (regent of the Institution)_..._..._._.__._.__.______-___---- vii, 10 
ross, Wihitmam = - 2th i wee a ele eee ee ee ix 
Crishman, Joseph: AUP Tah GUS ey TION MODIS, MOLE IS) LAI ae viii 
Cushman, Robert A-i<++2+222222222se222 eee. 4s seen eal sens = 4 ee viii 
D 
Dale, Chester, Associate Vice President, National Gallery of Art________-_ xO 
Dengeroqus: reptiles: (Cochran) «=== --22=-2.224ceeneneeieenssiss etek 275 
Davis, Harvey N. (regent of the Institution)_.__..__..._____-_ fs ch Mh aod vii, 10 
Dayis, Geovard: M+ = 2ias.2.422- seen e aces ese eke sbesce eels ee 50 
Weardortl-M.-Hevis 22 2S 22 sess sees ae hsb see see ee 52 
Deignan, Ge int su. LU tac on eee tn Le ae nh viii 
Delano, Frederic A. (regent of the Institution)___._.__._...._.._.-____- vii, 10, 95 
HDernsmore,. Kraneesi.+ 1. 2 2e Os sae we CE ek ie eee ee 8, 53 
Desch, \C.: H.. . (New metals-and new. methods) -2-==4---2222 2.5) Uae 213 
Director of the National Museum (Alexander Wetmore)________-_____-- vii, 24 
Dorsey, Harry W., administrative assistant to the Secretary.__________-- vii 
Dorsey, Nicholas W., Treasurer of the Institution_______---_---------- vii, x 
Bricker, PRM pi acne Que ele eS led a oh aS 53 
E 
Hiditorial division, Chief (Webster P.. True) 2322-2. 2 ee vii, 88 
Beads) Wisi Mis ee I oh Pap ee ate Geo Ld cee ee Of 2 Pap viii 
Eruption of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, The 1942 (Macdonald)______________- 199 
stablish men ti: We sss yl St ys RRs EA a ll 0 a) 9 
Hehnogeorraphie*Board.o 38. Sos ee ae 8 eee ee ee eee 3 
Ethnology, Bureau of Ameri@an._..f0i.¢ blew! 24). be beet) sees x, 240 
Wallectionisi io )2.) 0 eo ee la a eh 2 eae aE ed ee 55 
Editorial ‘work and) publications 220). 4 2222) Be Se 8, 53 
Bp 2) (0 Ua (0 a «gee Mee aren Re Ree ME RN ET UF ae ASS See ao 7,8 
Nilustrations_isa¢ us) fewmew bab iphiiheds Teese igrl sate 55 
d Dh] 0122) oh saan es Micon aed MIE OR meu GL itsy bap lM MER spe mane Me A om 8, 54 
Miscellaneous... ee ie) ake Jo ineests aeoeteeS 55 
Bersonnel os io. 38. og a yey a 2 ee Se 55 
REDON 2S Oi ee tek a Se pee alee ke 46 
Snecial researches. oo. 2 30) siete So bes et 53 
3] i A veh eee MRE e ROL Cu Luenen beam eure te IT Sin be 


INDEX 603 


Page 
Executive Committee of the Board of Regents_______.__...--.-__.----- vii, 95 
Reports kent Slt shes = 24S ee ne di SMe 5 I a aS 89 
Appropriations soed 2c22 Soe eee ete TE SOB bey 94 
ATION Sls St es So ee ke be ese te a 2 ORI 95 
Cash balances, receipts, and disbursements EAE FES ONG Ls 92 
Clacsifieation. of investments. UA ot as ee ee 92 
Consolidated fund. ea ts ee es GR A ee IA 91 
HreernGallery: of Art hung orto: Ba Ie eRe RS NE) CO ae ee 91 
Gittsvandsbequests: 42. --2 44 22ese0 252 SLR es Gee Seen 94 
Smithsonian endowment funda. = 2s Sees See ee 89 
SUNT 2B A ts ea aes lh al 2 pede wen re Ls Ssh ceca 91 

F 
BEET TaLTE) Clea) oan Cpe tans UE 2 > NS 2 2b) Shen eh SE eye gl ay sel etek viii 
Heder wVorke Apency et sf. alle Lyi re ae UE iy eS eee velit. Elbe TE 26 
UBceemlicoaim ANN se 2 eee ey nee ee eee er ee © EF x, S51552 
errmaridez cM OMmlm (Ieee 0 yl a ee at Si ae 39 
IRAE CES =e meen nie] Sh Oe) pert nah hie av eyl Men ion Peni a EY eens 11 
Finley, David E., Director, National Gallery of Art__...__._.._--_--- x 2G 
SIT Nm Aten Leaemreeaes emee, S85 ec e ee e e rae eee tt eee oe ix 
TCT Vie eee eee oc ae eee eee oh he Se ee Se el ae ix 
Ota sy (OL MTEC 1 C1 a 0 ep a eee ee. Pe 22 
Wood problems im wartime, Somer (Cowell). -- 2-2 os eo ee 591 
CSURELA ED MT aS TN Sesleri SB as pen) Bde ix, 22 
Fox, Charles L. (Sulfonamides in the treatment of war wounds and burns). 569 
Freer (Ceo Tey MOLES Generates are ee er ee ante REN ee een x, 7, 41 
Aton ancomerey sine wese et La tee an a ee ae 44 
SR eREI pene ITT EULO Ms ace se acts Many See rete wie, een ee ore A4 
alec npn ne Ls ©. on es St OI eee ee Se eee eee ene 7, 41 
Crsreesiae ere irae Ss oti lle ea toma Sa ade BA bp ap as ty api Bho ys dw 43 

iemitmme ICC tN eet an ee tes ot Be Se he 4 

TE YRUH RES a RE Lol rE Re te etal Makar ot ce een 7, 43 
JeteyessaaWiel OS ey AE Se ea he eee een eek Pe great eg = 15 al a Rca ele 45 
TENS OLON Fee Lee oe, Se Ol a ele enn OC Neamt IER REE AY ey Dray St yy TN 5h) es 41 
Sun 2 Aen) F! forty Foeg at oii Saber Boils fd alae GS ld pyar? 2 x 
AV Suny. (0) cemeteries oe eS pe a ee 7, 43 
ipmedimanns brenberic 2-2... 3 39el) fe alien D. eevineiae! sci th. pe viii 
(The natural-history background of camouflage) -_..._._._--------- 259 
cic remem Pie age a een Be 0d aera 50 

G 
Gass, F. E., Acting Chief Clerk, International Exchange Service______--- xi, 64 
MPMI EMV he se tee ea St Ree or NA ae ds a ne ds ees ix 
Gazin, WAIVE G2 oS 8 Ripping pital A aK UE TA SS pa eer ee Se x 
Gilmore, LES i SENG PRPS a ps ln LT SA Nn Pre rnyey ix, 22 
Graf, John E., Associate Director of the National Museum___________-- vii 
Graham, Avec oes Comer R NS Oo Who eaec vel. cowie cee ix 
© nee cy Eaed GUNG9 Pct Ml DF A ir ne a Saphan-o vili 
Guest, Grace Dunham, Assistant Director, Freer Gallery of Art__------- x, 43 

H 
ATT CUO Tre) © LT eee este Hee RO) Sg Pael  Ne Me Re A ees Aloe Tee ee x, 8, 48 
Harrison, Richard Edes (Maps, strategy, and world politics) _____------- 253 
Henderson, 2), Sak eae As a tae Sal a ee EL Wnty 0 Ibe NY ix 
Heroy, William B. (Petroleum gem lary ists ht sere. = sat neh Rha 161 
Bier iicGvaba eM ee ee oe ee ae 21 
idless tira ki ee eRe Poe Ae WE hae ue toate NIE pen PERE ix 
nile James E., property. clerk of the Institution__.--__—__ J Josie: ee vil 
iGO Vers William fee 9 Ne Se ere Ae a tal PIE atl Vices, Lbnepetes! Eade a kane ey xi, 76 
PSG) oN Rete Je 1 DD VERY eg TRS Ve A AOS SR IE ea led ae DE EAE NY aie, ATI's LEY: <P viii 
yy Sir Ge Oe se ahs ee 2 dP ay ble tlety og. pg BY eta: en EY NOE Age ele BD neetnigeee ide viii 
ET weelleA Sus raizier sess 2a ie we ee hal en Sb ieee se ee el oes a Ue Se viii 
irdirelka. VAle sii at hrm be Paris! Oe. pect ihe Le ee tl es 9 the ae lige viii 


Hull, Cordell, Secretary of State (member of the Institution) 


604 INDEX 


I 
Page 
iater-Amerncan COGperation: 20.82 oe ate eae Sea See eee eee 
International Exchange Service. 2-05-5025 5550 4 ae ee 2 xi, 8, 56 
ERP PAE SL CLOTS 2 ee eet hy Os OE OE St ee es 56 
Depositories of Congressional Record -_------------------------- 60 
Foreign depositories of governmental documents_-___-_------___-_-_- iat 
Foreign’ exchange*apencies 2-22 22222 2 Be Bee ee 62 
Interparliamentary exchange of the official journal_____________=___ 60 
Packages sent-and received 2822 heb ee ee ee 8, 56 
Personnel) 22250012 os Ce ae ee ee le eet es icp See 63 
Reppric sa). Airs ee ee eee See ee era eee DU ie ae 56 
CERES eek cee ok oad iw Se eee eee es A ee Dee eee xi 
ai 
James, Macgill, Assistant Director, National Gallery of Art_____________ x, 25 
AONUSOR ANS WEL 252-5 51S SIU a ee eA eel meee ee ee ae ee Penne viii 
Sobnstons Parl So ecu eae Sale cae Ort ae eee oe ete et xi, 76 
Jones, Jesse H., Secretary of Commerce (member of the Institution) _____ vii 
Once NOT Wi ere S.A Bt So oe a ee viii 
K 
Kelloge- Remingtongs. 2c eee te eek ok ey = eS ee tes ore viii, 20 
Kennedy, Raymond (Contours of culture in Indonesia) ________________- 513 
B EG(3 0} 06) Fal BE: 30 Vo bi gag aoe pe A gp ioe 38 Ro ay pA pau fs er Aa 25 
Ketchum, VIET E82 laa etees tt ote ee ee ae ale. rR ee oa ee x 
Killip, Bille auttic (Pets tee nin a ey eit ee a ee en viii, 20 
Knox, Frank, Secretary of the Navy (member of the ey alates vii 
Kramer, FASE heey lai ceihapa chet taylan tehth tate abana Re leigemicn arson Nas | 76 
Kress, SEER) RA@ spe mee ad Gr ROA AL Ue eles nt ly a x, 25,.26 
Krieger, U3 (pa oe ee ey ater nearing heres fearon ehh Mme viii 
L 
Eeonardybamery Ci Sh oie ea ee eo eae eke Ce A viii 
Lessons from the Old World to the Americas in land use (Lowdermilk)__.._ 413 
Ree wa Gl wn TeGCerie la so a ie sy Nas RN ee eee ix 
Librarian of the Institution (ietis: BY Clark) 62 ee ae eee vii 
Prbrary fb Soe 8 2 ee ee eee Perera Man oy rete el oe Oe rE tops 12, aa 
LGC EBSIOTIS sy steep sie eye aE eS Tee Se ea 78 
BES STD CIPO WPS lees cc AE ee KE are a 8 aca Pit TR ny el a 8] 
OEM rN Loven Valet pis os MCs OM pa oie aM dal badge fo Dea dy toes Naya Mitel Ree e ta eos, | 80 
CERTAPRO EES os hs ha Al oe pe Ea Bee 79 
Poersonmel <2" Fe AERA Vs SR Lets VRE et D8 tN Re Re gee ee 80 
Reporge ey st2 WE Ls seed we ae eS ois ape 8 x ele a Re ae al 
Statistics 24 Jee Le as tala’. Wali, Sd eae Dn Se kw ot Bo Ae 81 
WAT WORSE bs bin ALOE IL We ik AMI og RE irae Lh Se ere 77 
Library-of @ongreses «Aad 22 52 ORO We OR TL A OOTE OG) 8 we ee ape 57 
Rife magazine.) 4-2 2224 ose sees hssegewibs cose 2s Senet 29, 30 
Dink, Anna Mins: 4.s222bscsen22e52 5882 seuebe scene sben se BS 38 
Todge, Jobin Bes. 7 11). Ya e) Ie OS, LRN £ ACEI EGR ae 6, 7, 35, 45 
Lowdermilk, Walter Clay (Lessons from the Old World to the Americas in 
PTV URE) op eg st ta Se 413 
M 
MacCurdy,,.George Gram tiie kc oie 2 ere eh a ek ee he viil 
Macdonald, Gordon A. (The 1942 Eruption of Mauna Loa, Hawaii) ---_--- 199 
Maloney. sJiamicsi@ i 6 hci: Sue A A a sal ee tly i ae ye IN ag vill 
Mann, William M., Director, National Zoological Park______------- viii, xi, 74 
Mannings Catherine dus 2 2osb = SOUT eS cee: Oe 1 ES ee a yee ceed ix 
Maps, strategy, and world politics (Harrison and Strausz-Hupé)-__-_------ 253 
Marshall (William Bs 222. sce ees ep te ecb eee dee ee ee ee ee ee ix 
Mauersberger, Herbert R. (Progress in new synthetic textile fibers) ------ 151 
MaxonaiWiiRaonccereheiicedecn tn bee e eee Se eels eel viii 
McAlister, Edward Dessess sesggee castor esses sel US eat se eee xi 


INDEX 605 


Page 
McNary, Charles L. (regent of the Institution)... ._........-.....--_--- vii, 10 
Mears, ‘Eliot G. (The ocean current called ‘‘The Child’’)_______________- 245 
Mellon, AC. Wee Baucational and Charitable Trust... =... 2 aes oe 31 
Mfenibers of the Institution. ..._.._-...- fee: on. seo n- ae wee vii 
BUT ES MM AUTO G es ee oe i ee er ea Reha 2 peel ae 8, 51 
Miller, Gerrit SN Pare a oe See on Ss Re, em ce ae eae viii 
Mitman, Cs Ah ta aa IE Selene Be SEA ied Mite eral bes POs Pst, ix 
Mongan, LES) U AZ) OTS) 01 ea Orage Ie oR 7 ME S ve ee es! 25 
Moore, SH QREENOR OTN To lis 24.7 5G ee en st pesieet pe Melb ta eee 52 
PERE CL GS 8 oo see. 2 Se ee son ey ch ee ere viii 
Morgenthau, Henry, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury (member of the Insti- 
‘REACT cake ce oN a STE re SE ee eR UBT Op Pe I vii, 25, 26 
Morris Roland onm(regentiof the Institution)e225--2 2222525 55— 24 eee vii, 10 
IMPOCTIROD PUORC DO bru ions ue a See a a 2 SD Seer ag wee viii 
Morton, Sere he Meat coheed Pela a Poca eee viii 
Myers, Peele a Big ik ERR Sieh POS CCK 76 
N 
NationaleAcademy of Design) Council/ofs2. 2-2. 222 eee ee 37 
MathionadiacolechionvoOf KinevATis= soe 2s- 2 ase ee tse eee x, 6, 35 
LNCS REIS T OOS, SIS YN es a A RS ag 6, 35 
HAS[DY OVROY OW AED KOPIS | LI AE te a TT A Ue EN A en SS 35 
Caierimerwalgen Wyver funda oo. olor Nes ea 35 
Henny Wardehancer fundepurehases: ose 4 980 25220 5. 3a ee woe 37 
OST SEACCE le Clarets sete cele ait OA ALES a Shr See ee ae 36 
Loans to other museums and organizations_~_____----------------- 36 
ORHIEISSO: FECL ETI pa TSS NS ae EI A Se ee A Be ae OL 38 
TEAWIL oy DCO RT ONO! A eh eo A A Nh A ae Dt ee Et de WA, 40 
IELETeEn CERT AT y eres te A Fae ers eR eee es See eae 37 
DRS] OCT EB Ss Ne Ta a a Pe FAC Lc I ee a SO 35 
SMTLHSsOnaneAnts O OMIM ISSIOM= see sae 1. sere ot a ape epee 6, 35 
SPECIO NEXT DITION Sees oe eis ee NAS eae ea eee ee 6, 39 
NRYAT NaS HP ee TEST opie (oh gya 0 CEH gs] ek a RL RS) Se 37 
NnrOnaliGrallery: Ole Avion come mca Wane inate ak en le MN a a x, 6, 25 
JNO POMEST UT CONS | ee Shs SB ON Sk A PE 6, 27 
CUS LH ONS) COMM LCC a aa es aay re ee 26 
PATTET AIG ROUGE ELON see 2 op cee ts Se ae ea Ss RS May Se enc om ee ve ee 27 
ENT OTOP Eat O 11s eee ie pe ters Mc 2 ty Nh ee ee 26 
PAG ETUC E11 CO meee Pee e Ue ese ey te Sn NS es eee ee hay Og 6, 27 
Allait of private funds of the Gallery...-.2-.-22---.2. i250 422 ee 34 
MUEAOrin ROCRATHIMNGNt.. 28 2 se we ee et ee 32 
Hducstionsl programp ys) Regie Bain hy Lente tue Sede beets 33 
Xe cutive, committee set a/b tor meen Spel YO iT ph) aa Peis 25 
PitbiOns= ee ee eae eo is oe ke ue eae eee 6, 29 
HSpenGivURes an Glen CuMbrAnN cess eMac ee 26 
HINamcecOMMIG lee yes yee ee Ses se ele Paes 26 
Critsioh paintings and sculpbure. 2. — 2.2 2.) ee eee See ee 6, 28 
Geo iM 0 cha fae en ee a Re ee RR eE NM CmT stv Ty iss 7.2 Spee eu ea, 6, 27 
DAH ORE TA Zt ee ae a eS Se ers een ee Se en A 33 
Oat WOLKS) Ofsart Dive the Gallen vers ee: oe ee oe eet ee ee 29 
Hoansotsworks Ofart repurnedar. Bek Gr xsl Doe he A eee ee 29 
Eioans ot worksrotiant \torhenGallery-! #. sects Mel. sete 4 2) Se 30 
OG) fra C 1st See eee ee a ee es 3's ape | ee ne ee x, 25 
OreanizanioncimGe shat ss as owen fy eee eek ca ait = ee ey ey eee 25 
Othereeiiise esse eats wens Sie eee LS ei Cal i ee oe 34 
PhotosraphicidepariiMents a vaseme ss. 2 es ae See ee ee 34 
PTCA GT OMS eet eee te ae in Seat sir Peedi sm Nap tls Ph aah ite A aL 6, 27 
EAS) 1S af es ble RN RRO ORR oR ae fare aca ap apa lt ler Ai deat ced hs ONL A aa 25 
Restorationvand separ of works of-art.0- = ote shire Ue 32 
pale. orexehange Of works Oferta: -ctecn i sce orn ase eee 30 
eis tees mammary tires ees RIA eae © Reto F0Sr c2CE Oe es Le Lag ee a x, 25 
Woariouss@alleryactivitiess: == se tse) ee ie Ee er Ry ee eee epi 6, 31 
Works of art stored in a place of safekeeping_._____--------------- 


National Geographic-Smithsonian archeological expedition___- 7, 20, 21, 47, 53 


606 INDEX 


Page 

National. Museum..o0 ces oe SOR Bee OL eon) Ae aa vii, 5, 13 
ACCeRSIONSY 2. a aaack te OUT | Rete Piney re ees ONE Ee yD ead 5, 14 
ADDPTOPTIGtION - = 2 5 25 sec GP SS YD a da Ee SA 13 
Changes,in organization and staff. 0.05202 (50 ee Ae, ee 23 
Collections big yi ee ea sd ea a en ile OA 14 
Explorations,and fleld work. 2.02.02 2los0ul lt os ue ee ee ee 6, 19 
IMiISCGL AMO ONS Hj 2 tine tsa tyes has Oy eo PN ca 22 
Niuseum. inuwarbtime hess fu oo See Se Se apt a Ga 13 
Publications and. printing. 22252 Soba ee 6, 22 

MER PRONG a So ar mc a sesh Apc Eta es a Re 18 
Specialtexhibitss2asras) rim soe Ell Sch Sethu aed ip eee ee 22 
Se 1 ee ed eee a corals, ARbL NON ALS eye ae MO Ort wr te | vii 
WISItOTSe js ot st cea ee oe LMS Ut dy Sas ee aaa 6, 22 
National: University..of Mexico... ./s552 2555525550245. 5b eee ey 
National) Zoologiesl Park. he leek eo so he Ce xi, 8, 65 
PICK UMBIGIONS. OF SPCCIMONS - 44 5b as oes a ne ace ny ee On 
AInsreipyeTe CAUTIONS: cow ate ce UE a 67 

AP PTODIB UOTE ele ee ele ee eee ge en te 65 

ING CISTES neh ole a tat Rs Pe oe See ek che na ae 72 
Donors and-thein gifts-22 6-5 fee == RAVEN eee Be ee eeeee eae 68 
Bixchan wees Mass mee ba ede vik ie wel st ie Sie Oh SURE SS AY eee 72 
Gifts se s8 ons psa ee Nba nba oe ey 2 ew Se celal ee AI at) ee 68 
Maintenance*andsimprovementsnsase2 2. = reine oes a ee 66 
Natural reproductiont noe as BA Ok A aie ARIAL GAN a Oe Seen Cl 
Needs pr the: Zor acs sans seis nonsind SOPRA STN Et ee OP ae 66 
PETSONNGI= 6S 24.8 4 = a) Alan ees bn ah A Nim an, © 9 nd A ke 65 
Parc hase tla. 4 < sitcnew siren} sonnei YORE MONS Aer ORME A Ene en Be Oe Se ee 72 
Removalars ei a' 2 bs a2 pae o B ONE my oh oes Be Ake l ier eI Mel Aires So een ete 13 

1382] 010) i ee ee ee ee he eee Cee Pe mee ee GRILL A 65 
Species new to the history of the collection... __.__..______---____-_ 13 

RS GEE 2 Setar mm we we Nl ley oo ae A Sh a 2 8 a Bg 8 xi 

DUS TEMLEMT OL GC COSST OR Srl Mn) tnlk lature Pleat ne BR Ne ec ke A 74 
DLALUSTOR COME ELON ta ci mm loan bse i tli Mayan aw! he we 8 cere eo e ee en 74 
VES It OSA GIT HLG <V ATH de is Ml ge hon crt a) le i pntoaten an eA 8, 66 
Natural-history background of camouflage, The (Friedmann) -__________- 259 
Natural rubber tGook) nose erates er ee ele AT ae 2m oe wlan ee LNs eR 363 
Be scr 6 OP Hit. Perch ty tone arg ae Sn ert cease cia inh ee eS a 20 
New metalsand'new ‘methods *(Deseh wenn eos 2s Eh aes ae ee 213 
BSUS ylang AP in op 89 2 ne a ee meek es We mv Wa fale te One 2 le viii 

O 
O’Brien, Brian (Some biological effects of solar radiation)___.__.______- 109 
Ocean. current.ealled “The Child,”- The: (Mears) 1.1.2 8s ea esos 245 
Meceanosraphy. (Stetson)... 8. ae ee eee ee ee ee 219 
Ochser, Paul Ho J. 55S e USS sleet Le eee Be Se x, 85 
@itiee, of Censorshipl 2... 2 PUL SU es be oe Ee ae 57, 60 
Ofiicezof Strategic: Servicess22- 2222. Se ee eee ene: ei A) ce ee 33 
Onicials ofethe. Tostitution.2 22. bs eee ee ee vii 
Ghiver. Juawrence Tus Ooo ss rl i ieee ee x 
Olmsted Ac len see Be ed nel IT Be en b.c 6% 
Olmsted, Helen A., personnel officer of the Institution______.____._____- vii 
Origin of Far Eastern civilizations: A brief handbook (Bishop) _-__------ 463 
Other wartime activities. 28 sth din ete re eg oe a 
P 

Peeing. Ge oan be Rs ee EE Ue ke Dee ete era era ee RON Ns gen eee viii 
LEW hg aVe 108 LG ROW S12) [Ys Rea MN a eR RIE AN og ACV MBP x, 53, 87 
Palmer! Mheodore! Sakic ot th EN RN MU NO pegs pie uty le ame eo a eR ix 
Pam American magn ce ocak 2 PLN eS Ee Rete Ms io eee oa AOA alee 39 
TREAT CE, COT Coe eee eee eee lia: at Mat guar any tal Mane AGIA aha aa aa 22 
Pennsylvania: Histomcal Commission: 200 fn) th ie ee ee Ge eee 51 
Perkins, Frances, Secretary of Labor (member of the Institution) ______-- vii 
ter A Sa 2 VAN Rae TOM El RY wa RUAN MESA OMG a Lt a Se Maa PED AN TIP ta ix 
Personnel officer of the Institution (Helen A. Olmsted)_..______---_---- vii 


Petroleum geology (Heroy) 20 a ca ee es erie a a 161 


INDEX 607 


Page 
BERS MOMNCAN Sook 5 eo 3 ae SI oD OID MOO ee as NS x, 25, 26 
EMCHETLON OLED UCMN sere Ssh OS Ce eT Crees BN RIE 2 3 Piel IEC IeS 32 
eT CLO RP ELGNIT 1 seers eee ek | ahi. she ote! Oech CRE RED, ee a) Pe ix, 20 
Plants of China and their usefulness to man, The (Walker)______________ 325 
Perapiemberiie heeeee aise Soi eies(hs 2th, IE eal SAUER Se Ognt ooe x 
Postmaster General (Frank C. Walkery member of the Institution) ___-___ vii 
President of the United States (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Presiding Officer ex 
GiiIciOomMbner ns uUtlOn) i. 22 4c ese ks asda eee ee loo Le vii, 10 
Presiding Officer ex officio (Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United 
SLES) Mee one wee yk Bae he Br ee ate ode a 2 ee SER vii 
famcematerhouse-GyOOs soo 5: Ee See Stn Ce 34 
Progress in new synthetic textile fibers (Mauersberger) ----------------- 151 
Property clerk of the Institution (James H. Hill) ..-.--.-.2-----4.2--+-- vii 
pice ouil dings Administration. coo. s)he =e SEE A a EB 26 
SECM ONG ys fey So Ae ee eee CE SO Be ee ee 11, 82 
llouMents tors pLUn Ging 2 = fe SEED Eb ERS TIN ad TEE 
American: Historical Association, Reportss=-=-442255—-222e8eenee 87 
Nesropliysical:Observatory, Anunals_222.2424 2224244522 222se0oek SS 11 
Daughters of the American Revolution, Report of the National 
GICGMEe Meio > Soa eae a en A ae 88 
Distmibuploneets 22 22 ets ee eRe ak we te ee EN ae 12, 82 
Pinnolocy,) bureau iof-American==- 22. =2+-92seee5 2224-1 OSS ee 11, 82 
MCS DOL =ece anaes So 2'5 er ee ATR) VEE 82, 87 
Bulletingws + eves fe se eee s/s oe =e ee 11, 82, 87 
INationaleMUselim..2 S222 is.4445b2. sees bsbecscanse ese eee 11, 82, 85 
AnnualReports. J 2s42 2 sheild oe oe en oe RE 82, 85 
BUMS pis Sy Ree, AE Fey “eich tareees ST Me NOI es WA 11, 82, 87 
Contributions from the U. 8. National Herbarium________~_- 11, 82, 87 
Proceceing mies (Ramee OPT At BOOM OL ek hee 11, 82, 85 
HVE ON teense ee ee eae ee Belek bee ee em ok ke oe 82 
STL Gah TT Sa Teh ah a a an BOE YE ud PES REL 11, 82 
ATIMUa MRE DOTtSA tes as ss OURS ees AU yo ees S 11, 82, 84, 85 
MiuscellancoussCollectionsua= = 2.2 =U 222,26 NENA PE ee 11, 82 
Special publications 4.2 AUN Wey Ae Se ME a AN ES 82, 85 
War Backpround Studies? 222.6 Lh i. ORATOR oO Di SS 11, 82, 83 
R 
Bey Reeser VU INI eee tose Ree ersen (hE i Min aie ee ape ee WT x 
EVE OC LELO Cy Hs sO) eyegea eer ape centoee kt Nae Leste a Mu pe Se sa is Ng ee ix 
CE GBS Seine EY NA re ey Bye ys Ber ca aley Uae ELEY Mh get Weel AML WPB, ae ix 
Beveitien Phe BOAnd Oby shaky el ib ee 2 ee 
Members. = ate de wae lls Speplh teal) Unened il. Maly tarpon ll ayey tt BSE vii, 10 
IProcecdina gy: 2 aa ye Lats veneoett® . OEF ge fs ekg UE! bipeey ebogey Ge eat hb Ney ope 10 
Re liclen mil ara diy Atee at onto en Coenen hs oA Se aS Tae Rd Coe a 5 a viii 
Pe cer Un aA ate 2 say tet A ert che Naps x haf YE yeaa viii 
Veeeeesyetenet (Cove ye GS) TEM an AS Gs ei Be nea dl eal ph pia Vet Reo, Oo ans oe ix 
EE XSUC mmPANCT Gs MUL Yap spon ar ef ee ipa nCr pes PS eI Aap Lad pls OL a viii 
“EACTO (ST SL Baie a ee] ORS S Rela) VR a a rf nam Ata x, 8, 49, 50 
BEE ys Tg ns Spee ree me sate oto eg pede at Vn i eT pe ee ee AS oe viii 
Roosevelt, Franklin D., President of the United States (Presiding Officer 
ex Onicio andymember of the Institution) 222002. 322. eee eee eee vii 
{SSIES CALS 724 0721 6109) aay a ee MR 1 SS RS Ura ee pee 1p SPR ix 
Russells Rownsend wlth car 2 wig T pave ihe be See T> ah! Nes ciate (afin viii 
) 
Sawyer, Wilbur A. (The yellow fever situation in the Americas) -----_--- 575 
Belailer: Wie Tes: ae a 2 ie al eg ed i Raye pas hy Weve wet) Eh beta pagel. 8 ix 
emmy te sWViald Ow iaesete tee Le Rina yar ey ae ee ew ia il 2 A Soar viii, 6, 20 
Behulty. Leonard Po 2 2... Fema: pW yeely shady ok eae pe. po EY Py eee her eee viii 
Sel warhz, BemjamMinet: Vecste e eRe Lacerta Sechelt tee tphece fe ON shoes cen EO viii 
eienvinic Stall ips ieee tote Jo eet eye oe) Leese) eee sae Ne eae ee viii 
mea ass. storehouse, The (Armstrong)ifcct ledapast nctwdds Jeb eubek 2 135 
pearles dMarrictimichardsom! tscatat! aylk Say kobe eh ie ON ed. viii 
Seeretary of Agriculture (Claude R. Wickard, member of the Institution) -- vii 


Secretary of Commerce (Jesse H. Jones, member of the Institution) -_--~-- vii 


608 INDEX 


Page 
Secretary of the Institution (Charles G. Abbot)____________ vii, x, xi,'10, 12; :25 
Secretary of Labor (Frances Perkins, member of the Institution) ________ vii 
Secretary of the Navy (Frank Knox, member of the Institution)_________ vii 
Secretary of State (Cordell Hull, member of the Institution) ______ vii, x, 25, 26 
Secretary of the Treasury (Henry Morgenthau, Jr., member of the Insti- 
CALL MD) eve thi ca gh 8 es pn aig Oli iia ll 2% lee Rpdaiee ed vii, x, 25, 26 
Secretary of War (Henry L. Stimson, member of the Institution) ________ vii 
Bepurs Alfonse se bs EO 2 5. oleae ase ane 22 
Setzlens Braniks Mieiid seunbes pee ave sap pepe tO El Pt all A ee viii 
Shame) hyhle HM arolds i 25 ce ee 2 Oe perp th nts RL viii 
shepard: Donald WD! ooo coe eee oe ee ee eee 25 
Shoemaker, ©. Ro: ok ee en oe BEY ein SO hoe 9 pe se eur ie pea viii 
Sinclair Charles, C2242 2. Gs eh Si eee A oman ordi) mal siege x 
Smithsonian) Art Commission’ oo .0c.— a1 eee einty hk sonnel 6, 35 
Sinithsonian) im: wartime: Phe. 5. <a. oo eee ee eee 1 
Selarradiation.as a power source. (Abbot) - . ..=-- =2-stteie wa 8 eee 99 
Spencer: Williamies bay oo etl ahh ela nee hte ber os Aan 50 
polit oN 100 POEs Illa "Ls pm em Ce gee ean ELAN oRew Nae mpae oreo rg We ren Meee ye Sr ix 
State Wwepartment’...s . Sten SE i SR ote lg ewes Wynn mit. by oe 20, 21, 50, 56 
Stearns: Hoster (recent ofthe Institution) <..24—-.222.-2 55-22 4 eaten vii, 10 
miemngers Leonhard. 220th ea wee ea 
Steraperr, George Bo). 2. ok 2 eke oe ple 9 Oe See hl ee 22 
Nietson. “Henry (©. (Oceanography ye) 2222 22. el eet Sigce wee 
Stevenson JohnrAnw sie oe cei. ee eee Gee al viii 
She ward srs UMaine mrs ee te Se eee x, 4, 8, 50, 51 
Stewantihlewale so. Ale we coe i a ea ie ake viii 
Stimson, Henry L., Secretary of War (member of the Institution) _______ vii 
Stirling, Matthew W., Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology--_-__- x, 7, 20, 47, 55 
Stone, Harlan F., Chief Justice of the United States (Chancellor of the 
instr O ID ie fee Rares ee Gy eye Pe MAO UES sue ule Kae ees me an pes vii, 10, 25 
piratesic information to war agencies...5.2525.-2522-582. 202.4 oanen 2 
Strausz-Hupé, Robert (Maps, strategy, and world polities)_..___..____-_- 253 
SoroOne  Wallam  MUNCAN 5220 Se ae a otal eee eae 3 
Sulfonamides in the treatment of war wounds and burns (Fox) _.__-____- 569 
Summary of the year’s activities of the branches of the Institution______- 5 
RS VUPUINL OTIS VORA <Ey, HEPEN OA Oe See aa te er ls Ree en ls oe Bl x, 7, 48 
ROMANO ANN ila ee a Sea A apa Pe laa Die a viii 
rT 
Tannous, Afif I. (The Arab village community of the Middle East)_____- 523 
amor. cb arco Ay oj. Se as ky yy a 2d ge ee ix 
Tolman, R. P., Acting Director, National Collection of Fine Arts________ ix, x, 40 
Treasurer of the Institution (Nicholas W. Dorsey)..._._.._-.-._-------- vii 
Prenrbliy : URE se Wy hs ey ale Bs tr as ts og hg 2 ed x 
True WebsterP.;. Chief. editorial. division <ver dee Veena vii, 88 
U 
VIC aa Digg @ ieee declension abe linens taately Condi ryan <del root lhsatiiias Yeo ix 
V 
Vaurhan, DoW ako oes eee. os J Rs ee ot Lae aes Se eee ix 
Vice President of the United States (Henry A. Wallace, member and 
MCSE OL GH MUMS TUE UELOD) ee ee hse ae PS ea vii, 10 
W 
Walcott, Frederie:C. (regent of the Institution) Js. -...22-.---._. 2722 vii, 10 
RValker (higher: ba eee As crs ck re a te Ae ne ee) ne viii 
(The plants of China and their usefulness to man)________________- 325 
Walker, Ernest P., Assistant Director, National Zoological Park_____-_-_-- xi 
Walker, Frank C., Postmaster General (member of the Institution) _____-_ vii 
Walker, John, Chief Curator, National Gallery of Art_____________----- x, 25 
Wallace, Henry A., Vice President of the United States (member and 
regent ofthe institution) 2s sles oma De sD 2 eee EO eee vii,*10 
Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship__._____._....-.--------- 21 


INDEX 609 


Page 
Ser rNmOM viet ena Pe oo A De ee ee RE Ss ol ee 38 
Wawa cmmaitives, smithsoniane — .-. ooo sale Se 2 
(LEROY ITC) 1a ee Rae Rn SL PEMD ee Wy 52 
BEEP ORT CHUBETOICCUS OL) Lo ee toe a ae ah ee 3 
Berearerenit sr S88 a el we eee pe 21 
SREGCIOMN ANON 3 re ee ne a eR eae So a. a ee ix 
ORL AY ie ee SR ene ee a, ARES Ov eg Three s, Lc ebiL e viii, 21 
BeAr RAG se ete te eee ae Ti a en eee viii, 19, 47 
Weintraub; Robert Tue. =.-.-2--2.-2-5- 4. Rae ee aaa E its ah oe ne xi 
(Chemotherapeutic agents from microbes) _______________-__-____- 545 
neemley, A. 'G., Director, Freer Gallery of Arti.) 220-202 25225_2-.2 x, 7, 46 
Wetmore, Alexander, Assistant Secretary of the Institution and Director 
Olaunes National Museum. 82.8 AS we Lee ee ee ee vii, viii, 24 
Minioonead nO harlesas tds. seal etic been wet a el ioe Be ix 
Wickard, Claude R., Secretary of Agriculture (member of the Institution) - vii 
| TUBE SEES “A RO) SC) 01S 2 Re Se pee eae en Rae x, 25, 26 
ReMEMT EMORY LATION. i= 30.340 oi got lis eet ap. eae Re ed Se age ix 
OEE ERSTE ES os ae aie Sane Ay 7s Cee ely a a en OR REP 38 
iy 
LESS CUTE Ts a aS a es Le Re en. ie | 95 
Yellow fever situation in the Americas, The (Sawyer)__________________ 575 


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